Welcome Spring

My favorite trucks used to be steam rollers. They are just so cool, smashing asphalt and gravel into one huge slab of freeway. But as soon as I was introduced to the Sudbury sand trucks, I fell in love. They are gritty and loud, but I love them none the less. During the winter months loads of sand are trucked in and sprayed on our roads, leaving, I am sure, some huge beautiful beach bare, in the name of green living and eco-friendliness. This unwelcome sand is picked up by the tires of our SUVs and wheeled into our garage. It sticks to the bottom of our shoes and shakes off inside my kitchen. Or worse, it clings to my bare feet as I retrieve one more gallon of milk from the refrigerator in the garage. From November to late April, my battle is with the sand, brushing it out of the house by what seems to be the bucketful. In the winter months, my admonition to take your shoes off outside is said with more firmness, with a stern eye on the offender. But each year in late April, I hear the sand trucks rumbling through the neighborhood, scooping up entire dump trucks of grit. This day is always a good one. Not only does it mean that I have conquered another year with the sand, but it also means that Spring has officially made it's way up the eastern seaboard and has finally arrived in our town. My confidence in the sand truck drivers is huge. If they think that Winter has dumped its last storm and iced it's last road, that is good enough for me. Welcome, welcome Spring!