I have a friend who spent a work season at the opposite end of the globe, Jerry, as a construction worker. The two of you should meet.

One of the sadder facets of encroaching old age, in my experience, is that some things you never got around to doing are just not available any more. For instance I can't tell you how many places I've driven through or spent a brief time in that I told myself that I was coming back someday to spend a year there - and never did.

Many other things.

It is also true that I got to do some pleasurable, serendipitous things that veered me into another direction, so it does even out.

Watering the lawn here would be just bizarre. We've had a VERY wet April and so far this month. That wouldn't be bad, except that the rain has been very cold.

This morning, however, at just before 8:00 the temperature is 40 degrees so maybe we'll get to 45 today.

The trees and bushes are just beginning to leaf out. No color yet but the leaves are beginning to unfurl. My office window overlooks a hillside that is bare but I'm looking forward to when it greens up.

And yesterday a friend told me that there were six bears feeding on roots and greens on a slide slope which is where the first bears of the spring can be found. Someone else told me once that he had seen six but the most I've seen at one time is three.