Hope springs eternal, and that's a good thing...

Hope springs eternal, which, is a really, really good thing...

My fingers are cold as I'm hacking at the keyboard on a chilly Monday morning in March at The Paragraph Factory. Seems like my fingers have been cold since, oh, sometime last October.

I didn't help my own cause last Sunday night, either. Snow was starting to fall, so yours truly decided to wander out into the dark of night to try to take some pictures.

I suppose the little adventure was a success. I did get a couple of pictures. Mostly, though, I got cold fingers. You see, in order for snow to be falling, it had to be cold. Go figure. That's why The Other Half rolls her eyes at me when I return home after such jaunts. She again had sense enough to stay inside, where it was warm. Or, at least warmer.

Hopefully, it won't be much longer until snow and cold are just distant memories. And, thanks to The Other Half's very green thumb, there is indeed some genuine hope.

She has already started some plants for this summer's garden. Upstairs in our humble abode, several trays, filled with dirt, can be found under grow lights. Technically, I don't think they are grow lights. I think they are just fluorescent lights which help seeds to get an early start on the growing season.

So, we have some tomato plants growing, which is a good thing. I'm already looking forward to having a fresh tomato, or two, or three...can't happen soon enough...

One other thing, while, we're waiting for some garden ripe tomatoes and the arrival of warmer weather...

I had been feeling a little down lately, and not just because Old Man Winter can't seem to let us out of his icy grip.

A few weeks ago, while making the back-and-forth commute to The Paragraph Factory, I happened to spot something which kind of bugged me. 

A critter was laying alongside the road, in what appeared to be a permanent state of no longer moving. And we're not talking about being frozen. This poor creature was pretty much dead.

The critter was a groundhog, and I happened to spot him close to where my buddy Chuck happens to hang out. Chuck is a groundhog, too. 

For reasons I'll likely never know, Chuck has set up his homestead at a location which is fairly close to a very busy street. One day last summer, Chuck barely escaped being flattened by a very large truck which was motoring down said street.

Chuck's home also happens to get really wet when heavy rain falls. As you may recall, that has happened a number of times in recent weeks.

Between the busy street and the downpours we've been having, I pretty much figured that the deceased groundhog which I spotted alongside the street might have been Chuck, which made me feel a little sad.

Then, one day last week, while on the journey between Here and There, I spotted a groundhog wandering around in Chuck's neighborhood. This made me feel a little better on a cold and dreary day. Maybe Chuck did make it through the winter. Maybe Chuck and I will be seeing each other again. Hope, indeed, springs eternal.