And now the waiting begins.
Every year, on the day after the Super Bowl, I start waiting for spring. I don’t know why the end of the football season gets me focused on spring, but it does.
Every year when the last whistle has blown and the last Super Bowl commercial has played (by the way, can anybody explain to me what the deal was with that Dockers commercial?), I turn off the TV and look outside to see if the trees are budding.
They never are.
I guess, for me, the end of the football season represents a wrap on winter. Sure, basketball — technically — is a winter sport, but I just don’t think of it that way. Maybe because basketball is played indoors while football, for the most part, is not.
Maybe the end of the football season causes me to develop a serious case of spring fever because it comes in February. I know that spring officially begins sometime in March, but February is when all the spring heavy lifting is done. February is the month when Mother Nature will mess with us and every so often draw up a string of springlike weather. One day I’ll be shoveling snow off my sidewalk, and the next day I’ll be on a leisurely walk through our neighborhood with my family.
To me, there is nothing better than a surprise springlike day in February. A surprise springlike day in February makes me think that spring really is just around the corner. A surprise springlike day makes me grab the leash and take our German shepherd, Shilo, for a walk. Shilo loves to go on walks but, sadly, during the winter Shilo doesn’t get many walks. But, when the weather turns and I don’t have to spend 10 minutes bundling up before grabbing the leash, Shilo and I go on lots of walks.
Of course, there also is nothing more frustrating than a surprise springlike day in February. A surprise springlike day can make a guy think that spring is not just around the corner but actually here. A surprise springlike day in February can make a guy think about putting the snow shovel back in the shed. A surprise springlike day in February can make a guy want to clean out the three-season porch and fire up the charcoal grill. A surprise springlike day can make a guy zip through the TV channels, hoping to find a major league baseball game.
Unfortunately, Mother Nature, as she is wont (it’s a word; I looked it up) to do, will follow up a surprise springlike day with a surprise blizzard. As I’ve said many times before, Mother Nature has a somewhat sick sense of humor.
The secret to making it through February is to look at each passing day, regardless of what Mother Nature opts to do, as getting us one day closer to the real spring. If Mother Nature decides to drop 10 inches of snow on you, just smile and say, “Hey, it’s February. It’s supposed to snow in February.”
If Mother Nature decides on sunny skies and 70-degree temperatures, well, that’s just gravy. But accept the surprise springlike day as the gift that it is and move on. By all means, enjoy the surprise springlike day, but don’t put the sweaters away and pull out the shorts.
In short: Be patient.
You can’t hurry February along. You can’t march February into March. February has its own calendar. Really, for being the shortest month of the year, February is a long month. But, like an episode of “Dancing with the Stars,” even February eventually comes to an end.
So last night, after I turned off the TV and looked out the window for signs of spring that weren’t there, I put away my thoughts of sunny skies and baseball for a while.
Instead, I tried to figure out what in the heck those Dockers folks were thinking.
