The calendar says that spring has arrived. I think not. Our grass has greened up some with the drenching inch of rain we got yesterday, but the thermometer hovers at a chilly 39 degrees. The forsythia hedge in front of our house was ablaze with bloom this time last year when we moved in. As you can see by the photo above, the buds are there—and have been for the past week or so—but they are reluctant to pop. I can certainly understand why. It feels more like winter than it does spring.

They say another rough storm for us on Sunday with howling wind and torrential rains, then snow overnight. What? Don’t do that, I have to catch a plane to Las Vegas on Monday. Stop it—enough already! I have the pool scheduled for opening in one month. This kind of weather was not quite what I was expecting.

I didn’t expect to see the bears in my back yard last night at 7:30 p.m. either. After not seeing them for over a week I had grown lax about looking out first before letting the dogs out. Not a good plan. Two seconds after I let Daisy out she started barking furiously. That could only mean one thing: bears. I looked out to see a bear clinging to the big oak tree. Daisy was squatting to pee and barking. I called her and she came running in. I could see two other bears in the woods, so it was Ursa. I ran for the camera, but of course I was too late.

Somehow it seems normal to have bears in the yard. How strange is that? Last year when we moved here I had no expectations that we would see and come in contact with bears so often. And, I would never have thought I’d actually enjoy having bears in my yard. I would have freaked out! Now they are part of our wildlife family. I worry about them when they are not around. Silly, isn’t it?

I didn’t expect our house in Colorado to to still be on the market nearly one year later. It’s such a lovely house. I cant imagine why it’s still sitting there unsold! Very disappointing and worrisome. While we are still burdened with it, we can’t make any of the small upgrades we so want to do to this house. Please send some positive house-selling vibes our way.

As for my expectations of Las Vegas ... well ... I’m trying not to have any preconceived notions in my head about what it’s really like. I DO expect the weather to be warm and sunny (the weather map says so). I DO expect to have a great time. I DO expect to blog every day from there and bring a little Vegas to all of you. It’s Lynne—Live from Las Vegas!

I also expect spring isn’t too far away. At least I’d like to think so.