"A little madness in the spring ...."

Ah, Miss Emily. You knew us well.

True, if you read the entire poem (see below), you will recognize that much of it does not apply to what I'm going to talk about--but that first line is a dazzler that I will, shamelessly, appropriate.

PAUSE TO WONDER.

I'm pausing here because no sooner had I typed those lines than a raven* appeared right outside my study window, perched on a branch of our blooming magnolia, and stared at me. I should have opened the window to hear if he was saying "Nevermore," but I was scrambling for my iPhone to get a pic, an activity the Raven disdained (apparently) and flapped away before I could fire away. So ... you'll just have to trust me: He was there.

UNPAUSE.

Okay, re: some spring madness--Dyer Style.

It seems as if everything--every little thing--requires some energy and attention these past few days. A little list ...

• I had to call to schedule an appointment to have our home A-C checked out for the upcoming heat (!) of spring and summer.
• A few weeks ago, out of town, I got on the UPS website and entered an alternate address for package delivery. Since then--despite my best online efforts to alter the situation--ALL packages have gone to that alternate address (up in Stow--about twenty minutes away). The suggestions given online by UPS did not help: The screens they told me I would see I manifestly did NOT see.
• Finally, today, I spoke with a Human Being and got the thing altered. (I hope; we shall see, eh?)
• We've had to make service appointments for both of our cars. (It's time, according to that little sticker in the windshield.)
• Our home phone line is dead. No dial tone. This was preceded by much static on the line the past week or so. Windstream assures me they will have it all handled by ... Saturday! 
• Beginning this week I have a spate of medical appointments:
• Monday past I saw my family doctor.
• Thursday I go to the optometrist (annual).
• Next week--dermatologist (semi-annual) for some skin-freezing.
• Week after that--quarterly injections at Seidman Cancer Center.
• Two weeks after that--dentist (semi-annual).
• Week after that--oncologist

It seems that my post-retirement full-time job is dealing with service and medical appointments. 

I'm not an insensitive boor (not usually, anyway), so I know that I could have no cars, no house, no A-C, no home phone, no medical insurance. So these complaints I've listed could seem ... petty. Privileged. Snooty. Annoying.

And so they are. In fact, I realize now that I kind of qualify for the "Clown" role in "A little madness ...." But clowns aren't always creepy, are they?

*probably a crow--but raven is so much better.

A little madness in the Spring    

Is wholesome even for the King,

But God be with the Clown,       

Who ponders this tremendous scene— 

This whole experiment of green,

As if it were his own!