"It's the first sign of spring"

The day starts out at 29 degrees and ends at 71. How am I supposed to dress for that?

Not that I'm complaining, mind you.

Today was especially jewel-like. There's nothing better than watching kids run around on the playground under the blue sky and warm sun, playing ball and laughing.

I am glad the weekend is here though, I've had a bout of sinus gunk. I'm so tired of coughing...my brain rattles and my ribs hurt. Argh, enough! And man, oh man, have the teachers at school been hit. Either norovirus, flu, or sinus has veritably wiped out many of even the most hardy staff.

I read that a Caribbean cruise ship was hit by norovirus, 108 sick so far.  There was one school in Vermont that had to be closed for two days, because 90 percent of students and 30 percent of staff came down with it. (There  are only 85 kids at the school). Part of the reason they closed the school for two days was to sanitize it. The cruise ship said the ship and the port terminal have "been thoroughly sanitized." Count me skeptical.

So today on the playground a little boy ran up and gave me a tiny, teeny, almost microscopic flower. He was the picture of quietude amid the maelstrom of screaming, pinwheeling first and second graders. "It's the first sign of spring," he said quietly. I felt like I was in a movie and butterflies were going to descend and carry me up to the cotton candy clouds. Or a unicorn was going to fly by and swoop us up to permanent Spring-land where teeny tiny blue flowers spread out as a carpet of dazzling azure with rainbows leaping from mound to mound...

OK, sometimes recess duty is boring and I have to use my imagination to liven it up.