Or at least it has Pitbull-like qualities. Pitbulls are my least favorite dog. They are born and bred to be aggressive. I am told that when they’re raised in a loving environment, they don’t appear to have a mean bone in their body. This is not so. They have strong, powerful jaws and know how to use them. They are tenacious and do not let go once they get a good grip say, on an arm or a leg.

Winter is much the same way. Yesterday, I would have said yep, spring is here. Today proved that I was wrong. Yes, we now have plenty of daylight, for which I am grateful. But it was a cold, windy day. I knew that winter still had us in her grip when I woke to the sound of the wind roaring.

The bees will miss Jim's garden

Here, the wind does not howl. She leaves that to the dogs. Rather, she roars in a very fierce fashion, like a wolf.

So I stayed inside this morning and afternoon – I cleaned the upstairs. Both Pete and I have not been feeling well, we’ve both been coughing, and our energy levels have been low.

No wonder, I thought, we sleep on a futon, right on the floor, where the dust motes are as large as rats. I swept, vacuumed, and mopped because (as I reasoned) the dust and the dog dander were bad for us both.

Unbeknownst to me, the dog has been chewing on bones on my pillow at night, as Pete’s been reading a book. I had no idea what the smell was – it smelled like a cross between meat and body odor. I thought it was Pete. The other night I found a bone on my pillow when I climbed into bed, and a large drool spot on the pillow.

So, this taken care of, the dust and dog dander taken care of, maybe I will now sleep better.

It is true, I now have a lot to think about. The guys locked Jim’s house door and put the cable up; this was his way of saying he was not home. Their job done, neither Kirby nor Pete seemed to give the matter much more thought.

Me, I wondered if he had seedlings going. I also wondered what was to become of his books? And I wondered, what with him gone, how might our bees do this year? Pete told me later in the day that Pat, Jim’s brother, now has the key and will come and clean up one day a month.

Pat told Kirby, who told Pete, who told me that Jim didn’t have any seedlings going. Pete said that the bees might do okay because Jim had annuals, such as roses. As for the books – I might talk to Pat in a week or so and ask him what he’s going to do with them.

This of course got me thinking about the fact that leaving one’s possessions to others is a responsible thing to do. So we are going to do this, this spring.

Next: 71. 3/14/22: Intimations of Spring