Opinions

One of the plusses of this past year is I made a new fishing buddy.
Gene and I met through the First Christian Church, in Coralville. During idle conversation, I learned he goes trout fishing regularly in Northeastern Iowa, and he invited me to join him for several trips last summer.
It didn’t take long to realize there’s something quirky and endearing about Gene. While driving to his favorite fishing holes, for example, he is on the constant look out for good rocks.

Being one of those people they refer to when they say someone can’t walk and chew gum at the same time, I used to think that implied a lack of physical coordination, but I’m more inclined to believe it’s a matter of having a one-track mind. There may be people who can drive a car and talk on a cellphone simultaneously, but I know myself well enough to know I’m not one of them. I can’t even read the newspaper and drink coffee at the same time. Sip. Read. Sip. Read. Throw in a doughnut and watch me short-circuit.

I imagine when you were in kindergarten or first grade, you sang, over and over, that little ditty known as The Alphabet Song. I’ve long been impressed by the fact such young children manage to memorize, in order, the 26 letters of the alphabet. That’s a pretty long string of facts to remember, in sequence, for anyone, not to mention a 6-year-old. (Have you ever played that game where participants take turns repeating then adding to a list of things they’d take on vacation? Have you ever managed to accurately repeat a list of 26 items in order? Chances are slim, aren’t they?)

March is supposedly a good time to fly kites. Tradition tells us, since March days are often too windy, too cold, too wet and too short for most of the other outdoor recreational options of spring, it is the perfect time for kite-flying. In a way, that’s probably so– at least it used to be– because a great deal of kite time was spent indoors constructing and repairing the kites, and a relatively short time actually spent outdoors engaging in the business of flying them.

Since my husband and I were married on a March Saturday all those many years ago, I tend to think of weddings every year when the month rolls around again. It ‘s one of the few things that make the month of March bearable, as about the only other things going for it are wind, slush and runny noses. When I think of weddings, though, I think of them as beginnings rather than the glorious result of months of planning and daunting expenses.