Signs, signs.

Crocus in a small little clump in bloom on the hill next door and swans in the open water.  Its been a long, long winter and these are good signs, folks...very good signs.  I have had my days of being too cooped up, too gloomy and am ready for the warmth of this sun and spring.  I’ve never been big into sitting in the sun.  Not my thing and never really was.  I’ve got enough Irish blood in me to be too fair and freckly to tan, and well, I just never saw the point.  I don’t mind having a tan, and I don’t avoid the sun so much but it just was never a priority for me.  If the sun hits my skin and turns it a color while I am outside, that’s good enough for me.  (I do use sunscreen.  I am not insane.)  Now, as I read the label on my high blood pressure medicine, it appears that I am to avoid prolonged exposure anyway.  Alright. 

I use to burn the heck out of my scalp, you see, as I am a pin head and can’t pull off hats.  I wish I had a long, graceful neck so that I might don a big brim hat with ease but I don’t, I can’t.  I do have a neck but I also have, well, high shoulders.  Hats just look silly, and flatten down my already straight hair and then, well, you know, I have a pin head.   The problem is, now that my hair has “lost its pigment” and is somewhat thinner than it use to be I can really, really blister the ol’ noggin’ if I don’t wear a hat while I’m in the sun.  

It really isn’t even a matter of being short.  I know short people with long necks.  My friend Carolyn can wear hats.  My youngest child has a beautiful, graceful neck with pretty collar bones.  She looks great in hats and is not tall.  But, I’m a pinhead and like many things in the fashion industry, they don’t make hats for pinheads.  Here’s the beauty, though.  I am now, and I think we have established that it is certifiable, old enough to not really care how a hat looks on me.  

A hat has become part of my warm weather, sun wardrobe.  If I am lucky enough to travel to some sunny vacation spot, I will sport a hat.  As I think about the upcoming spring and summer, I know I will be wearing a hat.  You might see me out in the boat in a hat.  In the yard in a hat.  At the 4th of July parade in a hat.  Look for me, I will be the pinhead and may even have youngsters pointing and giggling in my general direction while their mothers pull them away.  Bring on the sun! 

This, I think you will agree, has been a really rough few days.  We’ve all seen the news reports and the videos online so, what I have to offer here is trivial when reading what is happening in Japan.   Keep them close in your hearts and prayers...shoot, keep all of us close in your hearts and prayers.