Wed, Jan 16, 2002 08:12PM -0600

I think your map of the world resides in sections of the parietal lobe and temporal lobe of the brain, and I am finding that I need to have at least three copies of it, depending on the season. (One for spring and summer, with all the out-of-control foliage, one for fall when all the leaves have fallen and all the trees are bare, and one for winter, when everything is covered in snow.) This place looks completely different now that it is blanketed by a couple of inches of snow and I almost turned early to go to the grocery store because apparently I couldn't recognize the place. For a few seconds I tried to superimpose the three different maps in my head onto one location and I got all dizzy. This is not natural for me, having lived in California for 23 years, where the seasons pretty much don't change. I think it is occupying valuable neuronal real estate that I need for building schematic maps of antibiotics, drug interactions, bacteria, and the different forms of diarrhea you can get (e.g., watery, explosive, sludgy, etc., etc.)

I know. Excuses, excuses.

So yeah, now that it is my third year here in the Midwest, some of the novelty of snow has worn off. It's nice to watch and all, in fact, I still think it is quite beautiful, but I really wouldn't mind if tomorrow were the first day of spring. You bet I'll have my fingers crossed when February 2nd rolls around. Here's to hoping.