A Taste of Summer

My Zen (as my friend KayO dubbed it) held out all day thanks to the absolutely incredible weather and a few small victories at the office.

I don’t know how people who live in long-term arctic conditions stand it. I mean, I can’t even cope most of November, December, and January! By February, we usually get a few breaks. And we did this year.


But … March? We’ve got to be closing in on some kind of record – or broken one – for the first day of March. It was 82 at one point! That qualifies as summer in these parts. Everyone at work was buzzing about it all day.

And kspin tells me we were even warmer than the desert.

I had a late lunch and went out and soaked in as much of the warmth and sunshine as I could and then had to physically force myself back into the building. I went to my favorite downtown haunts but the fountains at Kiener Plaza were empty and silent. (The central fountain in fact was still littered with debris from last week's Mardi Gras revelers who couldn’t stumble another 10 feet to a trash can. B*stards!)

And, though Cardinal tickets went on sale today, Busch Stadium stood empty, too. (Not for long. Opening Day is just weeks away!)

But, I wasn’t the only one out sun-worshiping today.

The streets of downtown were filled with people, in part, the office-sheltered departing hibernation, and partly because the Missouri Valley Conference tourney is in town. (I had to look in the newspaper to see what it was because around 4 p.m. I heard a band start playing. My colleagues thought I’d lost my mind until they came down to my corner and could hear the invisible band. Clearly, I’m not a college basketball fan.)

As I watch the sun begin its decline, I know that this weather odyssey is temporary. And I hate to see it go. Really, I do. I know you’ll be back though.

But please, hurry.