Today is a delight. The sun is alone in the deep blue sky. It is 46˚, warm in these parts for March. The low, tonight, will be in the 30’s. That’s the spring pattern: warm days and cold nights.

The days are getting noticeably longer. The sun hangs around. This weekend we change the clocks. We spring ahead to an an even longer day.

Even as a kid, I loved this time of year. Unless the cold kept us in the house, we got to play outside longer after school. We lived on a tiny rotary, a circle of four houses. There were two street lights, hooded street lights, our alarm clocks of a sort. One light, my light, was right outside the house. When it turned on, almost magically, it announced the end of the day. On the poster of the film War of the Worlds, the original, is an alien ship knocking over a light pole exactly like my light pole. That always tickled my imagination.

Now, as the day turns from light to dark, there is an in-between, an almost night. I look outside, and the sun is gone, but I can still the outlines of objects and can guess what they are. There is a hole in the darkness letting in the light.

It was never dark in Ghana. The night sky, a blanket of stars, was so bright you could almost read by it. Every night had a falling star.

Night on a beach is filled with light. I can follow the sky to where it ends. I can see the stars from top to bottom. On a clear, easy night, the air is filled with the sounds of the waves gently finding the sand. It brings its own calmness. Occasionally I can hear the song of night birds.

I love my my deck at night. I can sit outside comfortable in the darkness. The peepers from the pond at the end of my street are loud. There are night birds. Henry barks at the sounds of likely intruders in cars or walking by the house. I shush him, but he still barks for a little longer before he finally ignores the sounds and settles down. Nala just quietly watches. We stay out late into the night, the three of us.

March is a quirky month. It waffles between winter and early spring. Yesterday was an all weather day. The rain started gently, sort of a spring rain, then it poured but only for a few minutes. The snow, big fluffy, wet flakes, fell next but didn’t stay. The sleet was last. Luckily, last night was above freezing, no ice on the steps or ruts in the road. Today is in the 40’s and is still cloudy. The wind has finally gone.

On my dance card today is the dentist. All of me is old, even the fillings, so I’m having one drilled out and replaced. I go to the dentist to avoid the dentist.

Before I went to Ghana, Peace Corps told us to have any tooth issues solved. I found a dentist in Lawrence. My father had the bills sent to him. I think I went three times and had even the hint of a cavity drilled and filled. During staging in Philadelphia we had to find our way to the dentist to have our teeth checked. Mine passed.

When I was a kid and went to the dentist, he always gave me this red pill to eat then he’d check my mouth. The red stuff ratted me out. It showed where I wasn’t brushing enough. I’d then get a lesson on how to brush my teeth. I always got a lesson.

My backyard has branches, some of them large, strewn about the ground having been broken by the wind. It has trash from Nala. Her recent booty was a bag of flour. I found her with it and put it in the barrel. She found it again and made a big pile of flour in the yard. Henry was licking it. Henry was again guilty after the fact, abetting again. I couldn’t pick the flour up so I covered it with part of the bird bath.

My days are comfortable and easy. A cleaning lady comes every two weeks though I do a few cleaning jobs in between. I do the laundry when the basket is overflowing. I have groceries delivered. I eat when I’m hungry. I eat breakfast at dinner or leftovers at breakfast. I wear my cozies all day. I’m enjoying life.