Focus Friday... ooooh look at the butterfly... I said Focus!!!!

UN-

When I decided to be a Tax Professional, I agreed to give up spring. As I do each year, I am rethinking that decision.

In SC Spring usually comes around April 3. Sometimes late in March. Never as late as May --- that is full on summer. Spring is a lovely day. Maybe it will be on a Sunday this year, and I won't miss it.

SC weather is freaky. I don't think it's unique, but it is my personal pain in the patootie.

Yesterday, I went outside and felt one of those perfect breezes. Not hot or cold. Gentle, like a caress. It had very little scent, but if I had to say anything, I'd say it smelled like a decision. Am I going to be winter or spring today? Since it couldn't decide, it was perfect. The breeze touched a robin and a mockingbird, the neighbor's cats, the bare green azalea bushes... and me. A rare moment.

Today, it is supposed to be in the 70s. I am hoping this is true, since I am wearing a short sleeved blouse. I think it will be sunny. It will pretend to be spring. Some of the flowers will be fooled. My sister's daffodils are already up in full glory. The neighbor's cats will hunt or sun, depending on whatever moves cats.

Sunday or Monday: a cold front moves in. We may have a wintry mix, and this time it may be real. Not the powdering of confectioner's sugar we got in January. A whole day and night (night and day) of snow & ice.

South Carolinians can't deal with snow and ice. We don't have the equipment. We still speak in hushed whispers of the winter of 77, and this time, we aren't talking about the recent unpleasantness between the states. That year (or was it 78?) had TWO ice and snow storms, each lasting over a week.

So when it snows, or even gets cold, we don't know what to do. We run to the store and try to buy gloves and mittens, only to remember they only sell those in August. We hunt through the boxes and find eight or nine stray mittens, none matching. We make the kids wear them anyway.

"Here, Mark, take the odd one, just use one hand in the snowball fight, OK? Fine... give Roslyn the pink one."

We don't have gloves. We have four or five bathing suits (which we buy in January.) Even I have four bathing suits --- all black. But that's not the point. NO GLOVES! Don't even get me started on snow boots. I usually wrap duct tape around my kids old shoes, hoping to cover the worst holes, and send them out. It's not like the snow is going to last more than a day.

SOOOO:
this week, I am going to: find gloves.
Buy bread and milk and canned food for the two hours days without electricity.
Find the board games.
Water the plants.
Put the plants outside for spring.
Bring the plants inside for the wintry mix.
Complete 15 corporate tax returns, January's bookkeeping, individual returns, payroll, and a worker's comp audit.

March 1

Is it March 1 already? Although the groundhog saw his shadow last month, the daffodils didn't get the news. My yard thinks it's spring, and so do I. I'm ready to get into the garden and dig, plant, clip, and enjoy.

Unfortunately, it's still tax season, so there isn't as much time for that as I'd like. Something I might want to consider, as I consider my career choices. It would be nice to see spring one year. Not just through the window as I stare out wondering how much Lowe's stock sold for when it was bought, "Oh, I don't know, four or five years ago."

My new years resolutions are not going so well. I don't even eat breakfast unless I pick up a steak, egg, and cheese biscuit from Bojangles. (Which sounds good right now, as I get ready to head to work on a gorgeous Saturday morning.) I have lost weight, but that has more to do with overwork and a slight case of pneumonia than any healthy eating on my part. The only green thing I ate last week was an M & M.

I have begun to organize my space, even though I never did manage to solidify that goal. I bought a cool white cube shelf and some red and blue bins and stuff. I can find paper, pens, folders. By next week, I will have a file for bills, letters, and to be filed. Some day, I may have what I need to write a thank you note, sympathy card, or birthday greeting AND mail it. We can dream, huh?

OK, off to work. Maybe I'll write some more later. That would be something.