I failed to note spring’s arrival on March 19, but our crocuses did not forget, pushing up through the ground to greet the sun. That’s all right: They soon were covered in snow, so talking about spring’s arrival now does not seem so tardy.
I was actually expecting spring to arrive on March 21, which shows how out of date I am. Bob Berman points out that the date of the vernal equinox shifts every year so, although spring arrived on March 21 for most of the 20th century, the 400-year Gregorian calendar cycle dictated that, after 2007, the date of the equinox would move up, and by 2024, it would fall on March 19. Spring will not occur on March 21 again until the 22nd century.
To make things even more confusing, although the astronomical beginning of the spring season in the Northern Hemisphere was March 19, for meteorologists, the first day of spring occurs on March 1 every year. Temperatures in March, April, and May constitute spring weather, preceding the three warmest months of the year, June, July, and August, which make up meteorological summer.
You probably know that the vernal equinox marks the date that the Sun crosses the celestial equator, making it spring in the Northern Hemisphere and fall in Southern Hemisphere. That theoretically gives 12 hours of sunshine and 12 hours of darkness (the word equinox being derived from the Latin words aequus (equal) and nox (night). However, because the earth’s atmosphere refracts sunlight upward, the length of daylight actually exceeds darkness on the equinox. The real date of sunlight equality is three or four days ahead of the equinox.
Neither the Gregorian nor the meteorological calendar can predict the weather, however. Starting on March 22 and extending into March 24, a storm dropped 20 inches of snow in our backyard. Before the temperature rose above freezing, which would make the snow heavier and stickier, I tackled the first 11 inches of snow while it was still light and fluffy and easy to move. On Sunday, I went out to clear off the additional nine inches that had fallen.
When shoveling snow, as with life, it is best to keep the completion of the task in mind, but not to let the distance ahead become a deterrent. Focus on the immediate need, and then the next, and before long, the end is in sight. That meant shoveling one step at a time and not worrying about how much more snow there was to shovel. It may have taken hours — and in life, years — but the task gets done, if it needs to get done. Perhaps someone will come along with a snowblower (as did our neighbor, Bill Cox), or a plow (as did our regular plow company, Cardigan Valley Farms) to make the task easier, or perhaps the weather just warms enough to melt the rest away (not yet). Maybe some other demand will get in the way and divert attention from the task, but that is nothing to fret about. Accept the new challenge with the same determination to take care of things.
Sometimes it means pointing out better or more appropriate ways to others. I’m beginning to feel like a grumpy old man when it comes to the Newfound Area School Board: I feel obliged to point out what the board did wrong. For example, having just completed the annual school district meeting, the school board suddenly announces a public hearing “to approve to use up to $200,000 from the Maintenance Trust Fund for the purpose of purchasing a modular classroom for Danbury Elementary School”. This is something that has been under discussion for months and should have been on the school district warrant. Instead, the school board wants to approve it on its own at a public hearing tonight, March 25, at 6:30 p.m., at Newfound Regional High School, 150 Newfound Road, Bristol.
There is money in the Building Maintenance Expendable Trust Fund, which the school board has the authority to utilize after holding a public hearing on the proposed use, so it does not require spending additional tax money; but the purchase or lease of a portable classroom goes beyond the scope of building maintenance. The school district has used portable classrooms in the past, and always put the question before the voters. Of course, at the time, there was no Building Maintenance Expendable Trust Fund they could draw from. Still, with questions about the toxic materials and poor air quality of the old modulars, having a full discussion of today’s portables with residents attending the school district meeting would have been the standard approach, and preferable to hearing from a few people attending a school board meeting.
A modular classroom will allow Danbury to bring back students forced to travel to other schools because the Danbury Elementary School cannot physically accommodate them. The purchase makes sense. It’s just that this is not the way to restore trust in the school board, which has been justly and unjustly criticized for their decisions over the past year.