Sneeze along with me

Maybe you should hold the newspaper out away from your face as you are reading it today. I'm sure that as I wrote this column I coughed all over the page I was writing on. I would really worry about exposing other people except that almost everyone I meet either has a cold, is getting over a cold, or has a family member with one.

It seems like this has been a long dreary winter and the fact that so many of us are punctuating our hours and minutes with coughs and sneezes makes the time even longer.

I think I am over the worst of my episode, but our daughter seems to be just coming down with it. Actually she started it all about six weeks ago, and then our great granddaughter got really sick with her version.

I took after her, and now Shirley is making it come full circle with a new twist to her former cold.

I was looking for sympathy from some family members in Texas and Illinois but I got nowhere. They have the same thing although we haven't seen each other for several months. I guess we can say it is in the wind. I'd just as soon it would blow on out very soon.

During one recent warm day I ventured outside for a minute and suddenly my spirits rose. I found several purple and white crocuses blooming in our front lawn. Nothing can raise my spirits quicker than to see this first sign of spring. When I looked closer I could see that our maple tree is budding and the little red buds have scattered on the walk below. I can even imagine that the forsythia bush shows some promise of the yellow blossoms although none have appeared yet.

Meanwhile the wheat fields look lush and green and many fields seem to be disked and ready to plant new crops for the summer. So maybe this long dreary winter is actually going to end soon.

It probably won't be long until we will be complaining about the heat or bemoaning the fact that the lawn needs mowing again. But now each sign of spring is very welcome.

Part of the joy of spring is seeing all the young animals. We have a half grown kitten that chose to come live with us. His actions make us smile and laugh in between our coughs and sniffles. He has adopted a small teddy bear that is almost as big as he is. He will roll and romp with this toy, then drop it and leave. Immediately then he will turn and pounce back on the fuzzy animal as if he has really pulled a fast one. You can see that even in the absence of a mother cat to teach him, he is acting out skills he will need as a matures in this country setting.

So far we have kept him inside since our grandsons' large dogs think our yard is also their property and we don't want to risk a tragedy.

Another hopeful sign is that our resident Canada Geese have returned and have staked out the nest in our pond. The goose has made a few housekeeping visits to the nest, but so far, she and her mate just stroll the fields and lawn, swim in the pond and keep any other geese from even thinking about making our pond their own nursery.

Yep, I think better days are soon going to be here and if I'm still coughing next week, I will cover my mouth nicely before writing my column. It's time to call a halt to all this sharing that has been going on.