Up and Down the Rollercoaster

Okay, so here it is, what, a couple of days later, and I can see signs of spring:

• It got to about ten degrees today, which feels absolutely balmy. I didn't even bother with a coat today.
• The snow is almost gone from the grass.
• The dogs got their spring haircuts, so now they look like chihuahuas.
• The gardening spam emails are starting to fly.
• The oleander has a million little flower buds on it.
• I found rabbit poop in the backyard.

So we may have weathered this after all! It's amazing what a little sunshine and warmth will do to my mood. It's almost embarrassing -- one minute I'm lying like a bag of wet laundry on the couch, unable to function, to think, to blink. All I want to do is sleep and cry. And suddenly I'm up and baking French bread and writing and running errands. Sheesh, you'd think I'd be tougher after 25 winters in Canada!

I definitely need to find a solution to this Winter Blahs thing next year. I need to bank my money and my vacation time and take off three months to spend in southern Italy or something. Like the spindly tomato plants I will soon have growing on my kitchen counter, I need sunlight. I crave summer. I can taste it coming.