COUNTDOWN TO SPRING, AND THE PERILS OF PAULINE

STILL A LONG WAIT FOR THE FERRY

PIKE'S CREEK CHEATS A BIT

Thursday, 9:00 AM.  15 degrees F, wind SW,  light to moderate.  The sky is partly overcast, the humidity is 75% and the barometer has dropped to 30.24".  It feels colder than it is.

   As of today it is only two weeks until the spring equinox, March 20th. I'm going to start crossing off the days on the calendar.
  Down at the ferry dock, it looks like the vehicles are already lined up for the first ride of spring, but it will be a bit longer, I am afraid.
   Pike's Creek, at the Hwy. 13 bridge, is running pretty free...but it cheats, since it gets a constant flow of water from the adjacent fish hatchery.  But in two months there will be some lunker trout lurking under those tag alders.
   So, Putin will annex Crimea from a hapless Ukraine and there will be no consequences. Next he will do the same to its eastern provinces and and as he strengthens his hand move on to the tiny Baltic states, and then we will be obliged to finally stop him in Finland.  What has been lost through weakness is gone.  Now, will the US and Europe finally regain the strength and confidence to prevent World War III?  This begins to look like a rerun of an ancient The Perils of Pauline episode, except it is deadly serious.