I don’t want to over-hype it, but this is going to be the best
spring ever.
I don’t want to over-hype it, but this is going to be the best spring ever.
I hate the spring. I always have. To me, it always has been the worst season of the four that come and go each year.
Summer is too hot, but there’s a ton of concerts to go to, girls are out with golden sun tans and there’s always something to do. Fall is the most perfect, no doubt about it, with football, pleasant weather and turning of the leaves on trees. Growing up in Colorado, winter always wore out its welcome, but with skiing and the romance of a warm, crackling fireplace on a cold evening would make you forget that it was below freezing outside.
But spring has always meant mud, chilly mornings and finals – the end of another school year. But this year it’s going to be different. I’m not in school, and Colorado’s snowy/rainy, muddy month of March is more than a thousand miles away.
All this week I’ve been excitedly telling my friends and my coworkers the good news – I already got my first sunburn! No one seemed to care about me telling them all about how I sat out in the sun too long on the porch last weekend, but for me it was a big deal because it signaled the end of winter and the beginning of something new. Heck, that Punxatoni Phil doesn’t have any jurisdiction over the West, anyway.
So, I’ve begun preparations for the just the 22nd spring of my life, which officially begins Thursday. I’ve checked the concert listings and picked out what early tours will be making their way through the Bay Area early this year, I’ve started spring cleaning by spending a good couple hours cleaning the bathroom, doing laundry and rearranging my bedroom.
I’ve even been tuning myself up for the good weather. I’ve been running every week and playing basketball regularly in an attempt to shed the usual 10 pounds I put on while I sit in front of the television watching Denver Bronco games every weekend.
I even had enough time this weekend to go out and throw the baseball around – the No. 1 sign that spring is in the air. There’s nothing that says spring more to me than chasing down a high fly ball.
I’ve also spent a good 20 minutes every day on www.cubs.com, which is a sure sign of spring wherever I’m at. I’ve been a super Cubs fan since I was about 5-years-old, ever since I first saw the Chicago Cubs play on WGN and heard Harry Carey regale the general public with tales of the cost of a good hot dog in 1940 while Ryan Sandberg, Andre Dawson and Shawon Dunston quicky turned into my heroes.
I’ve been through way more losing seasons than winners as a fan of a team the is known as “The Lovable Losers,” but with Dusty Baker now managing the team and a bunch of good young arms, I’m hoping that we won’t be talking about next year by the end of March.
And I have every reason to be this hopeful. Why you ask? Well that’s easy to answer: Because this is going to be the best spring ever.
