Spring is here. Most of the snow is gone, and I finally took a stroll down the driveway.

All the bags of trash that have accumulated since I last went to the dump (sorry� �landfill�) in January are still there. Not a problem when they are frozen under the snow, but they�ll soon be getting ripe. Gonna have to haul them out this weekend.

The Christmas tree is still there. Branches of it had been sticking out of the snow since it was taken outside in mid-January, but they�re starting to turn yellow and brown now in the warm sun. Gonna have to do something about that too. Looks sad surrounded by bags of refuse. I would love to recycle our C-mas trees: it seems the proper thing to do. But the community always has their chipping day a week too early. You see, my wife�s B-day is in mid-January, and we always keep the tree up until after then. Her B-day is like another Christmas, another holiday in the middle of winter. It�s a long tradition, and not going to change now. So our trees don�t get chipped and mulched. The skeletal trunks of the 1999, 1998, 1997 and 1996 trees are still piled on the north side (I�m not kidding, they�re there right now). The sparrows like them� a good place to hide from cats and hawks when you�re hanging around the feeder.

The dead mouse is still on top of the spool. We have a huge spool on our patio. Actually it�s taking up all that�s left of the patio. The other half was destroyed when we replaced the sewer and water lines about, ohh, five years back or so. No patio, but we still have our spool, covered with rocks, broken terrariums and bones. This spool is just like the cable spools college students like to use for tables, but ours is four and a half feet high and at least eight feet across. I have no idea what was ever wrapped around it. The hollow center is big enough for a clubhouse, which is what our boys and their friend were using it for when they discovered it in an open field. Neighbor kids took to bombarding them with rocks when they were inside, so my wife�s wise solution was to ask the town if we could have it, and put it someplace safe. Without consulting me, of course. But I got the job of moving it. Rolled it down the middle of the street like a giant gerbil wheel. Been here ever since. Has produced some of the most interesting wood-boring bugs I have ever seen. Ever seen a pigeon horntail (Tremex columba)? I have. BIG suckers.

Anyway, the dead mouse was still there, resuming the decomposition it started last fall. If nothing hauls it away to chew on, I might have a Peromyscus skull by next fall. Found it in one of the ~20 empty barrels I store in the garage. Knew the mice were there, they leave tracks all over in the dirt floor, but never thought about them falling into the barrels. I try not to think about how the mouse ended its days. I store the barrels upside down now.

Of course, I should eliminate the mice. They weren�t there when we moved in. They could be exterminated without a lot of trouble. Near as I can tell, we have both Mus musculus house mice and the dreaded Peromyscus maniculatus, the white-footed deer mouse which is so great at carrying the often lethal hanta virus. Hanta virus has been confirmed in Peromyscus collected just seven miles east of us along the river. And having a dirt floor is probably the best way in the world for getting virus-contaminated mouse urine and feces stirred up and into your lungs. But I love looking at the tracks, covering every square centimeter of dust. I try not to shuffle my feet and keep visits short.

Yep, spring is here, even if most of the country is still under a blanket of snow. Our part-time adopted foster third son owes us $80+ for various snacks, CDs and Magic cards purchased over the winter. I look at the six months of dog droppings showing up in the newly bared off lawn, and I know exactly how he can pay off his debt.