Sprung

The lilac bushes look sad this year. A lot of flowers were about to bloom when the cold and rain showed up for a couple of days, and all the early blossoms died. Now a handful of new lilacs have emerged, but they look awfully lonely amid the mass of dead blossoms. Lilacs are clearly not as hardy as the azaleas that have thrived for the last couple of months. But even the azaleas are dying back now. The red ones have faded and shriveled quite a bit, and the white ones are starting to shrivel. The roses and jasmine had better hurry up and bloom or there will soon be no flowers at all in my back yard. But if the jasmine blooms in April it will be the earliest I have even seen it bloom.

One good thing about the premature spring is that the streetlight on the next block is now mostly shrouded by the new foliage of the oak trees, so I no longer have it glaring into my eyes when I go into the back yard at night. I usually have to wait at least a month longer to get relief from that light. Now if the neighbors next door would just leave their back porch light off all night I'd have some dependable, pleasant darkness back there.

My sleep schedule is still odd. I hope I'll be able to wake up tomorrow in time to get to the stores before all the stuff I want to buy is gone. Today I didn't wake up until after one o'clock. I'll probably stay awake most of the night, unless there's something on television that will put me to sleep. Is Saturday Night Live still around? That used to do the trick.