I'll miss the rising moon tomorrow morning. It hangs low and yellow in the eastern sky, just a sliver of light, with the sun running close behind. I really don't mind getting up early. It's almost like having the house to myself for a bit before the rest of 'em are up and about. I've developed two morning routines. The first when I get up with Abe, and the second when my semi-retired dh gets out of bed later and it's okay to make noise on our end of the house.

Today was a good taste of summer. It was 80+ today. The trees are fully leafed now, though I am still in awe of the seeds littering the lawns. There is a house on the corner of Marshall and Lockheed that is almost solid maple seeds. There's more helicopter ends sticking up than grass blades. And our lawn beside the driveway and close to the elm by the garage is almost solid elm seeds. It's amazing.

The blooms have been just as thick. If you read my friend's blog about her wisteria, you can understand how it is all over this area. Nothing interfered with the fruit trees, the forsythia bushes, the lilacs (they're over already. Boo Hoo. Lilacs are my favorite), the redbuds--all of them were clotted with blooms. Late freezes generally rein in a little of the exhuberance of spring. The tulips and the azaleas are starting up now, next to the flox. I've seen hints of hydrangeas in the wings. There was a plant farm truck at WalMart today and it made my heart soar. I won't shop there--I'll go out to Warren's which is more expensive but the selection is so beyond the average petunias and geraniums. Not that there's anything wrong with petunias and geraniums. It's just that I managed to kill my trailing sweet peas over the winter and I've never seen them anywhere else. I can't wait to go shop.

Shopping for spring flowers is something my oldest son would probably kill me if I told everyone how much he enjoys going with me. (Shhhhh!! LOL!) He's much better at the mixing and matching of colors and textures than I am. I see all the choices and my brain goes into baffled mode. He sallies forth and puts together the neatest arrangements right there in the grocery cart. He won't have the time to help me this year and I am seriously considering masses of the same type of flowers in most containers. :) But I have to find just the right thing to mass. I'll find it at Warren's.

I'm rambling tonight, but it's been a good evening. It was a slow day and I needed one. Then this evening we had the leftovers of Wednesday night's shrimp boil with some sirloins that we found on sale, and some of our neighbor's homemade strawberry wine, and am I ever contented to sit here and just type while the guys watch Red Green on channel 13.

Tomorrow is ASL class. I look forward to it every week. I think I was born to be a student. Which I hope has made a good teacher for my kids.

There are other signs that the good weather is here to stay and that a new season is underway. These are the flat "flowers" that bloom on the corners at major intersections. They are red this year--square and flat with black squiggles and held up by a plain wood stalk, and the heads all point toward the yards where a variety of household odds and ends have made their way out the door to rest on the driveways and lawns. People are attracted to these like bees. In exchange for a few coins they carry these items out of one life and into another. Interesting how bees do much the same with pollen.

The lawn mowers are humming and the weed people are out enmass turning lawns an unusual blue green that means less mowing later in the season. Abe wants to mow lawns but he can't find the time to put together flyers much less distribute them, then actually do the work. He's working his heart out for this trip. I am going to be SO JEALOUS while he's in Europe. Oh, how I'd love to go with him. It makes me just a little nervous, given the climate in the world, but you know, he could get killed in his back yard tomorrow by a lightning bolt. There's no sense in giving up opportunities because of fear.

He wants to go to Illinois in June and meet the Chicago delegation that he'll be traveling with. I don't know how on earth we'll do that. I won't feel badly if it doesn't happen, but I have this feeling in my gut that he'll find a way. It's odd how he does that. He just doesn't take no for an answer until he's done everything he possibly can. I think this will stand him in good stead for the rest of his life. Provided he's pursuing the right things with such vigor.

Well, I should go look at my ASL homework one more time and try to anticipate what tomorrow will bring. I am seriously considering just taking tomorrow completely off in the writing department. I have to get some editing done and I think I need to read--to refill the well. Which reminds me I have a blog I need to read.