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Show "I can't complain about this warm weather, " a friend commented while rounding up his cows for their evening trip to the milk barn "but I expect we'll be paying our dues for it later on. ' ' He 's right. The lack of snow is more than an inconvenience for skiers, it means that irrigation water will be precious this summer. In the meantime though, we will indulge in a premature case of spring fever we'll pause by the woodpile in the morning to listen to the magpies and drive around all afternoon with the window down. We have another friend who insists that this is just the normal January thaw, a little late, but definitely nothing to panic about. He is still talking about spring skiing even though the rest of us have grown too skeptical to join in his enthusiasm. It's been the kind of bizarre winter that drives even confirmed cynics to astrological musings about what it all means. Even the existentialists among us have begun talking about cycles, and the ecologists are murmuring about sun spots and Mount St. Helens. But, of course, Mother Nature doesn't need to explain herself to anyone. The closest we have come to any sense of security this winter is the Farmer's Almanac. The planets have maintained their scheduled courses and the full moons have appeared on time even if the snow didn't. The stars have reached their apogees and various heavenly bodies have kept their appointed conjunctions, even the skunks have emerged just a day or two before the Almanac promises they would. It says it right there as plain as day Feb. 28r Skunks emerge. We would have just taken it as just a bit of folklore if two nights ago we hadn t been awakened by our pup's bark and then a powerful whiff of eau de skunk. Poor 'thing could barely stand to be with herself all the next day. Things were just getting aired out or our noses had become habituated to the scent when we heard another scuffle last night and sure enough, gasp, the acrid cloud rolled in right after. Funny how some of that folklore still holds true and how our iron skillet is our only possession not suffering from built-in obsolescence. NC m |