Sentimental Journey
We've had a few weeks of frigid temperatures and, after a few years of almost no snow - a return to a normal Vermont winter. This morning greeted me with perfect pink skies that can only come from the promise of a perfect sunny day. Even though I should know better, I couldn't help thinking it's almost spring, and as I navigated the mud pit that is our road, I starting humming something from 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers'. Pretty sappy, right?
It gets sappier. I'd gotten up early, escaping to our favorite diner for uninterrupted writing before the Big Guy and Thing1 and Thing2 woke up. The guys met me for breakfast a few hours later. Thing1 and Thing2 argued over who's turn it was to sit with Mom, and, still euphoric from hours of typing, I basked in the glow of being with my guys. But it was going to get even sappier.
The Big Guy took the little guys to find a part for vacuum, and I headed back towards our neck of the woods in my car. On my way back, I noticed a few pickup trucks parked up on a hill. There was a group of men - some young, some old - congregated around a blue cistern next to a tree. Still feeling sappy, I thought didn't notice the blue tube connecting the tank to the tree and thought, instead, how nice it was to see teenagers not too embarrassed to spend time with their fathers.
It wasn't until I turned onto the last paved road on the way to our house that I had the sappiest moment of the day. Then, there he was. An older man standing in the bed of his pickup sorting a pile of tin buckets with tent shaped lids on them. I drove on and noticed he had already driven in the taps for at least a dozen trees.
I turned onto our road feeling extremely sappy and sentimental (and suddenly craving something maple). Even the mud didn't bother me on my way back up our hill because even though there's still a good eight inches of snow in our yard today and single digits forecast for a few nights next week, I know spring is here. I saw it on the way home from the Diner, clear as day.