Frequent contributor Jim Peters is pleased that the snow is melting and spring is coming:

This has been one tough winter. How tough was it? I was threatened with being decked out by a guy driving a sports car when my snowblower blew snow in the wrong direction and hit his windshield. Fortunately a man I have never seen before, or since, stopped his car and asked me if I needed assistance. When I said that I did, the guy in the sports car got back in his car and left. Tempers were short in the midst of some of the worst snow levels we have ever seen.

There was the problem of where to put the snow. After awhile, snow got so high on my street that it easily surpassed eight feet, piled in huge mounds. And getting around in the truck was not easy, either. You had to often find an empty spot, pull over, and let the car coming from the opposite direction to pass you by, passing inches from your vehicle. Then, on February 2nd. we had a big snowstorm. I hit a patch of ice and, try as I might to brake, it was impossible. The rest is, as they say, in the history books.

I would like to say that the rest of the winter passed without incident, but that would not be true. I found out I had a life-threatening illness, I learned how to fall gracefully over a stack of firewood, I lost one of my vehicles due to repairs for three weeks. But the snowblowers usually worked, thanks to Cason’s on Gorham Street. The disease was not as bad as it could be, and I burned the firewood.

Now it is March. I am listening to a great deal of Billy Joel, who tells his life’s story through his songs. I especially enjoy “I Go to Extremes,” which is best told as the story of a manic depressive, someone who is bipolar. I understand that because I am bipolar. In the song, Joel states that he does not know why he goes to extremes, but he does. I do not know for sure, never having met him, but I am pretty sure he knows something about being in my shoes. Right now, I am on a high. Last night, not so much. Last night I was receiving emails which were not flattering from a specific soul. Tonight I was vindicated, and a major project I was working on worked to the advantage that I wished of it.

Today it was close to fifty degrees, and the snow appreciably diminished in size. Now, since I am a landscaper who does a little snow removal in the winter, people thought I would be upset that the snow was, in fact, melting. Not at all, I like the landscaping end of it the most, and I cannot wait to get to the mowing, and the planting, and the pruning.

I have heard that the city fines you five hundred dollars for scattering snow on clean roadways. I could not help scattering snow on streets with the amount of snow we had falling on us. But, I always went out to the street and blew it back to the curb. Still, I had to wonder where they wanted me to put it. I no longer hit one woman’s open bathroom window, by accident. I did that once and avoided it the rest of the winter.

Again, March has come. I used to, as a teenager, refuse to wear a coat after March 1st. I see some kids on the streets who apparently adhere to this rule on the coldest of days. March is the month of spring, and this year, with all of the vexations tossed on us by the weather people, or the Almighty, or whomever, March is a very welcomed month. Even if it snows. Heaven forbid.