Signs of Spring?

Queen of the St. Patrick's Day Parade
Originally uploaded by littlee.

It might seem odd that my brief anecdote from yesterday involved as a central element of the plot, a giant snow storm while today, I relay an account of my trip to the New Haven St. Patrick's Day parade. "Where'd all the snow go?" you might ask. "Wasn't if freezing?" The only thing I have to say is that this is New England and Lady March is a big tease. One day will be bitterly cold, making the following day's highs of 40F seem like clear evidence of global warming and/or the possibility that spring has finally arrived. But no, a week later we'll be mummifying ourselves in high tech fabrics and chipping ice off of frozen car door locks for a five minute trip to the grocery store. The point is that today, the snow was gone and the sun was out and the St. Patrick's Day parade paraded itself down Chapel Street to the inebriated hoots and hollers of several thousand onlookers all dressed in green. There were lots of men in kilts, a small gaggle of revolutionary war reinactment groups and a fair number of ROTC contingents, the members of which looked way too young to be anywhere near a military uniform. If the crowd hadn't been in such, er, high spirits, it might have been a rather sobering sight (pardon the pun) to see 15 year old boys and girls marching behind a Marines color guard. But the beer was green and flowing freely so the moment passed without such dark thoughts. And of course (?) there was the St. Patrick's Day Parade Queen. She was having the time of her life wrapped in a green shawl cruising down the street on the back of a silver Mustang. All I could think was, "Who gets to be queen of the New Haven St. Paddy's Day parade? Do you have to apply? Are there, like, neighborhood competitions in February leading up to the big event? Is competition fierce?" Eventually, despite the spring-like temperatures (around 38F) my toes did go numb standing there on the curb and it was time to wander back to Mansfield Street. I got home just in time to catch the beginning of the A's vs. Diamondbacks split squad game down in Arizona on the internet radio stream. Yep, that's right Lady March, I said spring training. You hear me? SPRING training. It's coming and you can't stop it. Baseball said so.