One things leads to another, then suddenly...

This is how it goes around here some nights. Especially when I'm alone.

It's Friday night but I'm working. Mostly because I'm alone. Tonight, it's video.

And then I get an idea that I need something else. And so I go in search of it. Tonight, it's music for the video.

And so I start rifling through a file folder of songs that, for some reason or another, I'd set aside. I don't remember when, or for what. And so I sift through mp3s. I find I have a dozen (at least) clips of animal sounds. Mostly pigs. They were a for a video I did two years ago. I never used them. I hit the delete key at least a dozen times.

And then I stumble upon The Airborne Toxic Event, which is a group I saw on Letterman in January. They sang a song titled Sometime Around Midnight and soon after I got the mp3 of the song. (Don't ask how.) And so I double-click the icon and it plays. And something inside of me stirs.

I still haven't found a tune for the video, but for a moment or two, I've stopped caring. I just listen. And then the song gets going and I get out of my chair. I've now forgotten what it was I was looking for. And because I stood up I get to I see this ...

And then I remember why it is I'm here, away from everything and everyone, happy, even though I'm alone. So I hit the mouse again because the song has stopped. And I listen again while I watch the ball of fire sink.

And then I remember that someone, just last weekend, asked the question that so many others also have asked, the how and why that led me here. And I recall that my explanation last weekend sounded more convoluted than normal. And I wish that I could freeze this moment so every time I hear the question I can simply point out this window and say, that's why... .

Marching toward Spring...

It has been said you can't have Easter without Lent. Likewise, you can't have Spring without Winter. I prefer to reverse the logic and say you can't have Lent without Easter, and you can't have Winter without Spring. Such an existence, afterall, would be devoid of hope.

Outside, the evidence points to Spring's arrival: the snow is gone; the ground is firming; some of the trees are setting buds; there have been Robins hopscotching from post to post in the vineyard; and geese, ducks and seagulls are migrating in full echelon. Just moments ago, a flock of white and black gulls numbering near one hundred crossed overhead in J-formation.

And so I sit convinced that Spring, the greatest tease in nature, has called for the end of winter. God bless her.