Spring has Sprung

...or so they say.

Around here, it feels like Spring is just a technicality, a date, a mere mark on the calendar; rather than an actual seasonal alteration.

It arrived, apparently, under the cover of darkness at 5:45 Friday morning. I imagine it chose that time because it was too ashamed to come during daylight given how little alteration its arrival actually brings to this part of the world.

I wonder if the hardy inhabitants of this part of the world ought to adopt a "Springtime Savings Time" that will offset the spring equinox to about three weeks later in the year to allow for the onset of Spring to actually herald a change to the landscape. Nowhere on the planet (save the most Polarly of climes) should the radio host have to say "Happy first day of Spring" and "Heavy snowfall warning" in almost the same breath; which is what I woke up to on Friday, today we have a Winter Storm Warning - maybe Environment Canada should re-name it "Spring Storm Warning").

Snow should not fall in the Springtime, wind chill should be a thing of the past, and grass should be beginning to turn green and trees should start budding and showing signs of life, but alas, these signs of Spring are still about a month away, if I'm lucky.

One of my personal signs of Spring (is it a Freudian slip to keep typing sighs of Spring?) is how restless I get for some colour other than the monochromatic tones of winter, even when the snow goes (I predict that will be about 3 weeks from now) it will be brown - grass and street alike, dusty, gritty and brown (hence why I long for budding trees and greening grass; something a little less dead-looking would be nice).

Another personal sign is the need to get organized - I completely understand the desire to do spring cleaning. Not cleaning, per se, in the sense of washing floors and vacuuming, etc. but certainly the need to divest myself of clutter. Like shedding heavy layers after a long winter, I need to shed some excess baggage (no, I don't need to lose weight - well, um, YES, I DO need to lose weight, but that's not what this blog is about!). I need to reduce the clutter that has taken over my apartment; like the squirrel whose nest (they do have nests, don't they?) is now full of nut shells and moldy nuts, I need to rid myself of the bits and pieces I keep holding on to - the bric-a-brac and knickknack nut shells that are beginning to make my nest feel claustrophobic.

I'm slowly re-organizing my apartment; which I would describe as controlled chaos, on a good day and all out bedlam on a bad day. The trick is, I hide the chaos well; I lock it in cupboards and stick it in boxes and squirreling it away (if you will) and forget about it (well, almost forget about it). The problem is, it's still there, I know it's there but like how I imagine most parents of newborns feel about sleeping babies, if I disturb it at all, all hell will break loose. But I decided I need to throw caution to the wind and try to organize.

I am reminded of the joke about how to eat an elephant; one bite at a time. That is how I thought I would attempt to organize my apartment; one chaotic corner at a time. The phrase “Divide and conquer” and “once more unto the breach” also come to mind; the latter being more of a call to arms to rally my willpower that an actual attack plan. The line after the “Breach” line is even less inspiring – “Or close the wall up with our English dead” which really rather accurately describes the current state of my storage room.

The problem with reorg'ing storage areas is that you need to make a mess first, hauling out all the bits that have been carefully stuffed into places, before resorting and then re-stowing; all the more reason to do it in small chunks, if possible. Which I why I need to keep my loins girded, if I lose momentum, I run the risk of being overwhelmed by a cascade of chaos.

“Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.”

Shakespeare aside, I HAVE divided my apartment into several chaotic sections and have begun to re-establish order, after all, it's Spring, I can't hibernate so what else am I going to do until better weather arrives…