Another sunny day, after a cold downpour of rain and then snow yesterday. It's below freezing, though, so the snow is not melting. I am awaiting mud season, then planning on which sorts of perenniels to plant in my garden (along with tomatos and peppers). I am also patiently awaiting the advent of the earliest spring bulbs like the squills and crocuses. It's late enough into March now that I am craving working in the soil.  I think this year I will plant some sunflowers somewhere in the back yard for the birds. Heaven knows, enough of them have been coming to my feeders this winter. I also want to add a couple of hummingbird feeders this summer.

I am still having that headache, but I managed to make it into work last night, and will make the attempt again tonight. It's the after affects of that bad cold, combined with this being one of the worst times of year for my tree pollen allergies. While everything is still snowy, this is the month when the trees reawaken from their winter sleep and start sending out their pollen. And Stevie and I get sinus headaches as a result.

On Sunday Dan and the boys got back from Pinckney shortly before dark. Bill had helped coach some of the younger kids. Stevie had just barely missed weight, not surprising given that he had wrestled the previous day and had to eat then to be strong. So he ended up one weight class up, wrestling kids nearly ten pounds heavier than he was. Ten pounds doesn't sound like much, but it is when you weigh only 100 pounds to begin with. He still went 2-2 for the day, came home with a black eye and a scraped up cheek. So for the weekend, in two very tough tournaments, he went 5-3. All three losses came from older kids, two of them weighing more than he did. So my little haruchai did just fine, and I am very proud of him. From here on out, he will be mostly going down to open tournaments in Ohio for the rest of the spring, wrestling for the club.

I am reading Collapse by Jared Diamond. In his previous book, Guns, Germs, and Steel he explored why some human societies came to be more technologically advanced than others (in short -- why did Eurasian societies take over the world when all humans started out on an equal playing field, and are equally intelligent). In this book he explores why some societies completely collapse and others are stable for hundreds of years. Very interesting reading.