Areas of Unrest

30 March 2008 - Springtime

You can tell it's springtime in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area in a number of ways. Oh, sure, there is conventional wisdom about robins and cherry blossoms and things like that. There is also even some conventional wisdom that recognizes that spring days here are either warm or sunny but rarely both. But those aren't the signs of spring I mean.

Let's start with sounds. We now have the best sound of spring in full glory, namely the crack of baseball bats. Today is opening day for the new Nationals Park. I have tickets to games at four ballparks I haven't been to before (including the new one here) so I'm slowly working away at that life list item. So spring can also be said to be the start of my heavier schedule of weekends away.

The other sound of springtime is less pleasant. Namely, ah-choo. The weather forecast reminds me that pollen count is high, but I don't really need to read it to know that. The nose knows. Or, as I phrased it to someone recently, the trees are trying to kill me.

The final sign of spring is related to the cherry blossoms and is, alas, a less pleasant one. Along with those lovely flowers come the masses of tourists. Slow moving herds of children block the staircase from the food court to the street at Crystal City every morning. Clueless and oblivious midwesterners stand on the left on the metro escalators (one of the most serious crimes somebody can commit in the region) and refuse to move away from the door to let people on (or off) the trains. They walk very very slowly four abreast down the street. I try to be sympathetic as I have been a clueless tourist in many a place in my life, but I like to think I've never been as oblivious or rude as they are. (And, of course, we never notice the ones who aren't rude.)

Springtime also means spring cleaning and I am firmly in the midst of that. The computer shelf in my study nook is slowly starting to get cleared off. I suppose the shredder should be added to the list of sounds of spring! And, on that note, I am going to go back to decluttering.