I have been getting myself in a good mindset for my doctor’s appointment  –  7:40 in the morning on the day of a predicted snowstorm. That is: today’s appointment.

I had an uncomfortable feeling about it – you know, those numbers that don’t lie coming back from a  reputable  lab. . . I couldn’t pinpoint the feeling to the appointment, but there it was in front of me and there was that feeling. But I got there and the doctor said I had done everything right and if another specialist were to look out of the blue at my current numbers, he would say everything is fine.

Well, I confessed to the doctor I had been wary and then said that maybe my premonition had to do with flashing police lights in my rear mirror. He laughed and told me to drive carefully. So I did. I came upon an accident with three crumpled cars and busy police – but no one yet directing traffic – and wound my way past on the shoulder.

I got home safe and thought, “Well, what!???”

Later I went to the bathroom and discovered that in the dark of the morning I had put my underpants (not panties) on inside-0ut. Ah, yes. Never deny a bad feeling.

February – to someone my age, it is Lincoln’s Birthday and Washington’s birthday, as opposed to President’s Day, and shoeboxes fashioned into construction paper-covered Valentine receptacles.

C. S. Lewis in Shadowlands referred to it as “a trying time of the year.  The leaves not yet out, mud everywhere you go.  Frosty mornings gone.  Sunny mornings not yet come.  Give me blizzards and frozen pipes, but not this nothing time, not this waiting room of the world.” I think we’re a month of so behind Lewis’ English weather here in Northern Indiana – the mud abounding  and leaves not out seems more like March to me. And we have blizzards in March, though we know the snow melt will come fairly quickly. March can still be very much winter.

Still, I do notice that you cannot ignore the change in the intensity of the sunlight as February approaches March, so, yes, March is a beginning of spring. However, while it is here,  February is that month when the holidays are tucked away and we can rest and wait. And, hey, I realize that ain’t bad. In fact, now that it is March with taxes looming and outdoor work right around the corner, I find that I’m not so sure about leaving my February hermitage behind. February might very well be procrastinators’ heaven.

Now it is over. Time to rev up. I have noticed, however, that people accept this revving up notion at different times.  Some times I am the early revver, getting annoyed by the slugs around me, but more often I am the slug who feels the nudges of the dastardly early revvers and snarl that I need a minute. That is a big, fat lie; I meed likes days or weeks, but I try to buy time with my “minute” cliche.