Springtime, again

Here it is springtime once more, and a long weekend to boot.  Everyone is out on the running path again, including Nordic Walking Woman.  I hadn't seen her in a long time.  My training team gets new shirts soon, although I have promised to hide mine under another shirt when I'm doing spectacularly badly.  Either that or I have to print my age in big numbers on my shirts.

Once more, the doves seem to be working up to crashing into my windows, the parrots are so loud you can't be outdoors in peace, the mosquitoes have made a big comeback, and I decided to do some spring cleaning.  Having put off going through our medicine cabinet for years, I decided it was high time; there are deposits in pharmacies where you can toss your outdated medications to make sure they aren't re-used or resold.  By the time I was through, I was appalled.  The cabinet was almost empty, and one of the medications had an expiration date of 1997!  This seems to be the week for other old stuff, too.  You may know that Encyclopedia Britannica will no longer be published in book form but will now be available on the Internet.  Several people think this will make the lovely books a collector's item before long, and today when my husband went to tour a house on a property he just bought, he found a complete set of abandoned Britannica plus a large number of good books in English, all of which are now in his car.  We, too, have a set of Britannica including the Children's Britannica and the gorgeous set on the great thinkers.  Maybe they will become valuable and our kids can do something with them after we croak.  All I can say is, the younger generation needs them.  They can't spell or punctuate, and I'm thinking about sending the great thinkers series to the Republicans this year as a political donation.  Maybe like a virus or osmosis, something of cognitive processes will seep through to them.  God knows they need help. (This is a mere figure of speech, I'm an atheist...)

Ever wondered why liberals don't go bonkers and shoot people like that old deaf drug addict Rush Limbaugh or try to blow up the local NRA chapter? 

For anyone looking for a good escape read, there are the Henning Mankell books about Detective Kurt Wallander, and all the Inspector Morse books are good reading too.  I made the horrible mistake of reading the last Wallander book first (there was no clue it was the last book when I bought it) only to be stunned with it ending as Wallander sinks into Alzheimer's disease.  I've managed to get over the shock by reading the other books, but they are all somewhat dark.  What is it about these Swedes who are doing police or suspense novels?  The books are excellent but they seem to be profoundly affected by Swedish winter weather.

Next week we are celebrating my husband's 70th birthday with a big bohemian musical party with plenty of food and drink.  I have ordered a really nice cake, just the right size to manage to get 70 candles on it.  None of this silly business about candles in the shape of a 7 and a 0.  Like the birthday card said, there'll be a hot time at the birthday party, especially if you're in the room with the cake.  One of my kids suggested we get a blowtorch to light the candles.  Otherwise we will need a team of candlelighters in order to get the last ones lit before the first ones have burned to stumps.  I think four people are enough to get the job done without setting each other's hair or clothing ablaze.

There was near tragedy today.  I spilled coffee all over the breakfast room table and got some on my Kindle!!!!  I think it has come through okay, but I'm not sure yet.  There are controls on each side of the device to turn the "page", and one side seems to be on the fritz.  This is not a problem since the other side works, but maybe after the coffee dries out inside the thing....well, I'll wait and hope for the best.