A Leap, a Spring and a Shamrock

Leap Year Weekend in Healdsburg

A week ago I realized two months had already passed since I sat mesmerized watching a sunny Rose Parade. I'd been sitting in an outdoor patio cafe in Healdsburg Leap Year Day, marveling at how the year was speeding by.

Somebody at the table mentioned that maybe it just seemed to go by faster as we grow older because time seems so endless when we're young. Now I'm wondering if that's true. I know that the summers of my teens seemed to drift on slowly, catching the bus to Hermosa Beach, standing in a wet bathing suit in the parking lot behind The Lighthouse, falling in love with cool jazz. And waiting for school to begin again in September.

Another friend tried to provide an explanation of this phenomenon, claiming that when we're young we have so much more to look forward to, getting through each grade toward graduation, choosing college or the military or a job that might lead to a career. Looking forward to marriage, raising a family.

So here it is, the eve of Spring Forward morning, when we return to another eight months of Daylight Savings Time, with longer afternoons and early evenings. What do I have to look forward to now? Well, after all it's March. So there's March Madness, the first day of spring, and my favorite, St. Patrick's Day, with limericks and the wearing of the green.

But wait...first I've got Friday the 13th. I'm celebrating that this year with a real turn back of the clock, back to the Roaring 20s.The storefront Maverick Theater in Fullerton brought my favorite F. Scott Fitzgerald novel its stage and I'm itching to see it. Maybe I can't do the Charleston any more, but I can still don some beads and swill a bit of gin.

So who says older folks have nothing to look forward to?