This blogger came into March like a lamb, so will try to be more lion-esque on the way out. Prideful, if you will.

To begin with, good riddance March. I’m more than ready for a bit of warmth and watching the local fauna come to life. Dining and drinking on the patio, watching kids play t-ball, and falling asleep before it gets dark – bring it on!

I usually don’t respond to weather or other outside influences; but as I think about it, it’s been a downer of a past few weeks. While thoroughly enjoying my “retired” state – I had been optimistic about finding some sort of part-time or temporary money-making gig, but the prospects have been drying up. In this wacko economy, nothing is playing out as expected. My gainfully employed friends and acquaintances are so overwhelmed by their workloads they barely answer emails. And for those of us looking for some enterprise, the pickins are slim, indeed. One friend actually fought off over 600 competitors for a part-time, minimum wage administrative job. Amazing. Another was more than happy to take a 5 week temporary assignment where her biggest challenge will be staying awake. I’ve just started to look into a somewhat entrepreneurial situation, which I will blog about later if I conjure up the chutzpah to give it a go.

Not having a demanding schedule does give one more time to read, and one book I can heartily recommend is Stubborn Twig by Lauren Kessler, which is the current selection for “Oregon Reads” (www.oregonreads2009.org). A well documented history of three generations of a Japanese American family that reads like a good novel, Kessler’s straightforward story-telling honors a family with a tradition of making the most out of life while simultaneously bluntly exposing the shameful treatment our fellow citizens received in the name of “national security.” Sadly, the lessons which seem so obvious in retrospect are apparently lost on our collective psyche where we, as a nation, continue to struggle with human rights issues –now with regard to so-called enemy combatants.

March also provided me with a quickie preview of What a Drag it is Getting Old (thanks, Mick). I tweaked my knee (old injury) and had to pull the old crutches out of the closet. Good news – I was able to see the good ortho surgeon quickly and get the dang thing scoped – and was back in business within days.

Tomorrow (April 1) is my favorite day of the year and I don’t even have a plan. No colleagues for whom I can leave a note on their desk to “call Mr. Lyons” and leave the number of the zoo. I’ll have to think of something.