Today's weather is turning out to be so mild and perfect we're all kind of coming out into the warmth with spring thoughts like you wouldn't believe.

We checked the flag on the ice this morning (it's tilted, but not ready to sink quite yet) and then stopped for the mail (there was none), before continuing on to recycle at Wolcott. While we were at the store, we saw one guy with shorts on - I don't think he was a local, but he might have been. Deb Stresing was sprucing up her shop, getting it ready for the May 1st opening; we bumped into Jenness Ide which is always a pleasure (she's always bubbly and fun); then there was Garey in the post office showing signs of a different sort of spring fever.

It seems there are new regulations set up by the U. S. post office department about forwarding mail, and Garey is having a hard time with the mail for some of our summer folks. He said to let you know it would help him a whole lot if you let him know when you are heading back here so he won't send your mail on a long unnecessary trip south only to be fetched back here because you've left already . . . then you arrive here and your mail is someplace else and important stuff is delayed getting to you. I'm sure you get the picture. He was obviously having a hard time this morning trying to figure out where people are or where they're going to be if they aren't already, and if not now, when. He says a quick phone call to him at the P.O. (802-684-1158), or send him a note: Postmaster, West Danville, VT 05873, should reach him!

Having promised Garey I'd do my best to help by posting his plea on the blog, we continued on towards Wolcott. There were folks walking on the beach - perhaps they'd been on the rail trail, but I imagine that's still kind of wet and snowy in some spots. They were enjoying the sunshine just as much as we were. We passed a Quebec car a little further up the road, a convertible with the top down (of course!) pulled over either examining a map or making a phone call from their cell - we couldn't tell which. We met lots of cars with drivers smiling happily and talking on their cell phones.

We stopped at Poulin's in Hardwick and Fred picked up a piece of lumber he needed. Really nice folks there. They didn't know us at all, but we were told to drive out to storage area "D" and someone would take care of us. A very nice young man was waiting, knew approximately what we needed, got it, cut it to length for us and sent us off with instructions to talk to a certain lady in the office about another question we had. We were impressed at how friendly and helpful everyone was.

Same thing at the recycling place. They are now distributors for Maine Wood Pellets, and Fred got lots of good information from a very friendly person there. While he was in that office talking about wood pellets, I was in the car watching a very friendly dog pacing in and out of the open door of the office. She looked to me like a boxer - not your regular "junk yard dog" breed, but she sure looked like she was keeping track of things. There was a hound of some description bawling at a farm up the road on Rte 15, but that didn't seem to interest her at all. I guess the mournful howls were just background noise for her. She seemed more interested in people coming and going, but in an aloof sort of way.

We stopped at Grand Union on our way back through Hardwick. I don't know why we should be surprised when we see someone we know in Hardwick, but when we heard someone yell, "Go on back to West Danville," we were just a bit taken aback. Turned out it was Mary who works at Hastings Store. She was chatting with a group of people in the parking lot and had recognized us. We hailed her with waves and a big "hello" - picked up a couple of things in the store and were on our way again. Mary was still enjoying the sunshine in the parking lot with her friends.

And so it goes - a nice spring day, everyone out doing their thing, enjoying the sun while they can, any way they can. It's supposed to rain buckets tonight and for the next few days. We're beginning to feel the temperature dropping - it was a little above 60 around noon, but now has dropped back to about 54 degrees. Still warm enough to melt snow and ice, by golly.

Two things before I move on to other things. There is a new comment on home page, if you're interested, and someone also sent me a comment after reading yesterday's blog. You'll find that one at the bottom of that blog.

We're hearing from lots of people who picked Ice-Out dates over the next few days. This will be another nail biter, I think - that ice is looking pretty dark and with heavy rain coming, it's anybody's guess when the platform will sink and the clock will stop.