Spring is happening on the Outer Banks. With every breeze this oak loses more of last years leaves, a sure sign of the spring to come. In the next week or so this tree will be full of buds and by next month it will be covered in light green new growth.

My niece and her kids came down for the day. the weather here on the island was warm with what seemed like light winds so we went on over to the beach. Well it was quite a bit cooler and much windier but the kids had a great time .

Next weekend is Easter and the beginning of the summer season. Easter comes very early this year and for the first time I see businesses that are not opening for Easter. I cant blame them; things slow right back down after the Easter week, weekends tend to stay good as long as the weather is good. Traffic seems to have picked up a little and since houses are not selling and construction is way down a lot of folks are looking forward to the traffic and hoping for a good season.

I am so over this! Last month I went to Las Vegas and while I was there I saw “Menopause the Musical” and one of the main themes was hot flashes. Well folks ever since I have been home I have been flashing. We are not talking little personal summers, these are events where people look at me rise an eye brow or two and say “you seem to be a little red in the face”. It is said god is a fair and just being but from my point of view as a woman I don’t think so! The sex hormone god gave women causes them endure a “monthly visitor”, child birth and menopause. Men on the other hand get a hairy body(that they are not expected to shave), a deep voice and a desire to play paint ball…… Oh.. I forgot when they get older they also get an enlarged prostate that restricts the flow of pee….. never mind I’ll keep the hot flashes.

I took a quick trip up to the mountains this week. I Left my house here on the beach at 5am Thursday so that I could meet with a few excavators that afternoon. The meetings went too well; now I have to choose between two very nice and capable men. I think I will be going with the one with the bigger equipment. I have some rock that has to be moved and he can do it one way or the other. The other guy is “almost” sure he can do it and unfortunately I can’t afford to “try and see”. My gut says he can do it my pocket book says don’t take the chance I can’t afford to pay twice.

While I was up there I took a ride into Floyd and took care of some other “house” business and then went on ahead and introduced myself to Doug Thompson of http://www.blueridgemuse.com/. I have been visiting his blog for a few years now. He has a photo shop and show room in the Village Green in down town Floyd. Mr. Thompson is a very nice soft spoken man not at all as scary as his writing makes him seem be. He has an obvious love for his wife Amy and her work; she is also a photographer. He seems to appreciate the other photographers and artist in the area giving me the names and shop locations of a few of them. I will be sure to check them out next time I’m in town.

I left for home this morning (Friday) at around 6:30am. I have so much to do here that I had to come home. Of course the weather here on the beach has been just great. I hope it holds up for the “Kelly’s St Patrick’s day parade” this Sunday. It’s the largest St. Patrick’s parade in North Carolina and it happens rain or shine the Sunday before St Patrick’s Day every year. A few folks I know will be enjoying a picnic while they watch the parade. Around here its just as much fun to watch the spectators as it is to watch the participants. This is one of those bring the kids, bring the dogs, come as you are or get dressed up kind of events. This is a good site for up coming Outer Banks events http://www.outerbanks.org/

I let the dogs sleep on my bed last night, something I seldom ever do, but I have been neglecting them as of late so I acquiesced to their whines and let them on the bed. It was a fitful night, I’m not use to sharing my bed, which convinced me that if I am ever fortunate enough to find the perfect man I’m gonna have to get a bigger bed.

This morning I also woke up to the first day of daylight savings time, an interesting twist on time suggested by Ben Franklin in the 1700's and first introduced to the American people in 1918 as a way to increase leisure time and maybe save a little energy. I had not reset the clocks last night so this morning I have been quietly turning clocks ahead. Some of the energy stealing gadgets I have, you know the ones with the little green lights that are always on using a trickle of power all the time, had already changed their time. I know I should unplug or at least connect all these devises to power strips that can be easily turned off but the DVD recorder has to be reprogrammed every time it’s unplugged and I’ve gotten use to the convenience of just picking up a remote and just turning one of the gadgets on from any where in the room, in other words I’m lazy. With the ever increasing cost of energy I need to get un-lazy; I’ll put that on my list.

Another thing I woke up to today was a change in the weather. We have had GREAT weather here on the Banks. Mild temperatures and just the right amount of rain, I had to cut my grass last week and will need to cut it again soon. Yesterday nature let us know that a change was in the air. We had torrential rain followed by a fierce wind and sound side flooding. This morning the wind has let down a bit but the temperature has dropped. I don’t think I will be outside much today. It is only beginning March and this change in weather happens every year. That slap in the face by nature that says "get real it’s not spring yet! Did you not listen to that Pennsylvania ground hog? You have a ways to go before spring!" When I let the dogs out this morning all I could say was burrrr.

Well time to go. I don’t know what I’m gonna do today but I gotta go do it.