Slouching Toward the Vernal Equinox

There must be a connection between the fact that brain tissue is referred to as gray matter and the gray days of winter in Penn's Woods. The grayness of winter days invaded my gray matter about 5 weeks ago and sucked me down a spiral. Not even the gray shale dust used for traction on asphalt could provide enough friction to stem the slide in my head. Like the Greg Brown song, I was going driftless.

Scientists say that the recent earthquake in Chile threw a tiny kink in the Earth's rotation. Maybe that's why the sun finally came out during the last few days. Or, maybe it's just the eternal cycle. Whatever, the cause, the increased irradiance from the dying star 93 million miles away along with the sight of emerging Baetis on Spring Creek and the slurpy rise of an anxious brown trout has roused me from this infernal funk.

Spring is coming fellow prostaffers. I have it on good authority.