TheBanyanTree: The Drive Home

[Margaret R. Kramer]

The cold front came through with no snow, but the cold air came seeping in,
crawling into every nook and cranny, and by the time I got up this morning,
it was below zero.  Below zero and no snow.  Our winters are now so bizarre.
Our snow comes in the early spring instead of the depths of winter.

But it was still warm yesterday morning.  When I went out to get the
newspapers, there was just a hint of that spring smell in the air.  It was
very faint, but my nose definitely picked it up.  And I heard the first of
the spring bird songs.  Usually, it’s quiet as a tomb in the mornings, but I
heard the first chirpings of some bird, eager to get started, I guess.

The cold front pushed the clouds away and the sun was exploding into our
light deprived eyes as we made our way to the Women’s Expo in Minneapolis.
We go every year, so we have our routine down to a fine art.

We park our car, and this year in a very daring move, we left our coats in
the car, instead of checking them in.  We were right by the elevator in the
parking ramp, so all we had to do was walk through the cold very briefly
before entering the skyway to the Convention Center.  Why wear a coat?  So
we left them.  One less thing to worry about.

The Expo has all kinds of vendors; clothing, make-up, jewelry, mortgage
brokers, financial advisors, boats, massage therapists, publishers, travel
agencies, you name it, it was there.  It’s kind of like a small state fair
for women.

I bought my usual 11 pairs of earrings for $5.  I bought all four of the St.
Paul Winter Carnival pins, which is coming up next week.  The Carnival is
when spring (Vulcans) overthrows winter (King Boreas).  I’m signed up for
the Winter Carnival Frozen 5K.  I bought a beautiful Valentine pin that was
designed by a previously homeless woman for a homeless foundation.  There
were puppies from the Humane Society to cuddle.  The big rage at the Expo a
couple of years ago was lasix surgery; this year it was massage.

A large grocery chain provides a gazillion aisles of food samples.  I don’t
even eat that day, because I know I’ll be chowing on the food.  The food
samples are ice cream, soy products, soda, coffee, pizza, bratwurst, and
yes, there’s healthy food, too.  They give out bananas and cans of soup.
They have salads and carrot sticks.  I began to get a sugar high and had to
sit down for a while.

We left after my little rest.  I took the river route home.  It was just
past twilight, so there was a reddish tinge in the darkening sky.  We were
listening to a Prairie Home Companion on public radio.  In the space of a
few minutes, Garrison went from a beautiful choral arrangement in honor of
Martin Luther King to a Buck Owens tune, and finally, a choir sang some
wonderful old hymns.

The road twists and winds along the river.  There are stately old mansions
on one side and the half frozen river on the other.  The wind was beginning
to howl and I saw leaves nervously skittering across the road.  Some of the
houses still had their Christmas lights on and they provided a beautiful
multicolor accent to a wonderfully beautiful winter evening.

When we got home, we went through our bounty.  We put the food away and
threw out tons of brochures and coupons we would never use.  As the
temperature began to drop and the north wind zoomed over our roof, we sunk
into our green couch in front of the fireplace and watched “Trading Spaces.”
It was a good end to a mid-January day.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at earthlink.net

http://www.polarispublications.com
Be a star!

http://www.bpwmn.org
Business and Professional Women of Minnesota

A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one year and out the
other.
~Author Unknown