Use the letters in the word and you’ll see that it’s true. (I suppose that staring at the moon makes a person some sort of an astronomer.)

So now we have the arrival of both astronomical spring and meteorological spring. The people who study and predict the weather use March 1st as the first day of spring.

It is very obvious to me that it is springtime in Sanpete. Seeing the return of robins is a big sign of spring. Many years the poor robins flit about my yard in between the snowflakes which is a weird sign of spring. They like to peck at some of last year’s apples that didn’t get harvested.

One would think that robins would check the Weather Channel before they fly back from wherever it is that they flew to last fall.

But, oh no, they have to be the harbingers of spring and come back regardless of winterlike storms.

I think I saw a Mrs. Robin giving a Mr. Robin a “Scotch blessing” while they were taking baths in a puddle. I imagined that she was unhappy with the timing of their arrival in Sanpete. It seemed clear to me that he was explaining that it wasn’t his fault that the signage was so bad that they wound up here rather than in St. George. I don’t think that she bought it.

As I understand it actually, male robins migrate first to the breeding grounds and the females arrive a few days or a couple of weeks later. The males have very dark feathers on their heads and tails. Their orange-red color is brighter than the females.

In the bird world, how the genders “dress” is generally opposite of how it is with humans — at least traditionally. Human males are often in drab clothing, while women are often dressed more flamboyantly.

Now that spring is here, I know that there are some Sanpeters who are itchy to get going with their spring planting. Those “mad dog” pea planters just can’t seem to wait. I suspect that more than one person out there in Sanpete has already got peas in the ground. They want to be the first ones on their block to have straight rows of peas popping up in their garden dirt.

There are other signs of spring. There are some people who have broken out their shorts already. I made a comment to a guy about him being a “sign of spring” to which he responded something like, “Hey, it’s never too early to wear shorts.” Goosebumps on ghost white legs led me to believe otherwise.

Of course, there are some Sanpete people who don’t care what the season is when it comes to shorts and flip flops. It’s especially true for people who are descended from “island people” or are transplanted from the islands.

I’ve watched a Hawaiian family over the years in my neighborhood. They have stubbornly clung to some of their cultural dress and footwear regardless of the name of the month on the calendar or the depth of the snow. I have to admire that kind of tenacity of attitude.

Mother Nature isn’t gonna push these people around. They’ll find spring time in their own minds in spite of the realities of Sanpete’s climate.

As my last evidence of the arrival of spring, I give you “March Madness.” Many of us are paying attention to the end of the basketball season. USU made it into the “Big Dance” and lost to UCLA. UVU lost in the NIT tourney to San Francisco.

The U of U will play in the first ever College Basketball Crown Tournament in Las Vegas against Butler on March 31st. Good for them.

I’m glad that they will keep playing, even though it’s a tad weird to have another tournament besides the NCAA one which involves 64 teams, and the NIT tourney which involves 32 teams.

But hey — it means time in Vegas! Time around the swimming pool, the David Copperfield magic show, the Donny Osmond show, (Marie was with him when we were there 15 years ago), Shania Twain — and… drumroll please: Runnin’ Utes basketball. Now, if only I were more than a lukewarm U fan. (sigh)

But, here’s the real basketball news for me. The BYU Cougars are in the “Big Dance” and they’ve made it to the “Sweet Sixteen!” They play Alabama on Thursday. I’ll have my lucky socks on while I watch, but I won’t make the trip to Newark, New Jersey for the game.

I’m kind of regretting putting the Houston Cougars down on my bracket as the ultimate winner of the tournament. I’m going to feel pretty dumb if my alma mater “Blue Cougars” were to actually go all the way.

By the way, I was touched and impressed by an act of kindness from Houston’s coach, Kelvin Sampson. It happened after the “red Cougars” beat Gonzaga in a tough game.

I saw Sampson give a big, extended hug and some consoling words to a very tearful Zag player, Kalif Battle, at the end of the game. It was a classy and human moment from a guy who I’ve mostly perceived as a gruff and tough kind of a personality.

So, there you have it — my arrival of spring report. I enjoy living in a place where the four seasons exist, even though the people and the birds don’t always know which month in which the seasons are going to occur. — Merrill