true colors

there are some forces of good in this world that cannot be stopped, and spring is one of them. what that means here in southern california is an explosion of purple. purple blossoms, that is -- the kind that seem to just pop out overnight, rapidly taking over the branches of jacaranda trees all over the city. i monitored the signs -- first, a few prematurely purple swatches in one cocky tree in mid-april, spotted on our way to bellflower for a family thing; then, the barest hint of lavender flashing by as i drove to work with the top down. and soon the whole world looks a little bit more violet. and now i come to work every day and gaze happily out the window of our ivory tower, 22 floors up. hmmmm, yes -- the treetops are abloom. it's a fleeting bliss; already the blossoms are dropping to the ground, leaving the pavement stained purple. it's a mess if you park your car under a jacaranda tree, but it's soooo cool to look at.

this year there has also been orange -- orange traffic cones, orange-and-white LABSM sawhorses with the blinking lights. the canyon is littered with cones, which also tend to sprout suddenly and then end up smashed in the gutter, ground to bits after being shattered by some careless hummer or honda. in fact the canyon is kind of smeared with tangerine, what with the aforementioned sawhorses parked at various points along the blvd, the cones, the vine-like flowers that grow alongside the road in a low tangle, and these little flags on long, thin, flexible wires that i think mark gas lines.

and now, of course, it all goes gray, as june gloom has come upon us. i myself am a little blue, having crashed down from all the birthday revelry into the realization that i am not getting any younger, and other angsty things that nobody really needs to hear about. still, spring feels pretty good. and it shall prevail. i saw two deep purple butterflies flitting their love-dance around the yard on friday. the landscape is green and bursting with yellow, purple, red, pink. just the other day, i noticed the jacaranda on the east side defiantly glowing with renewed vibrancy. brown and green lizards stalk the backyard like micro-dinosaurs. fat black caterpillars make their furry way across the steps. squirrels chitter. birds twitter. i even think i saw a bobkitten scramble across mt. olympus a couple weeks ago. either that, or it was some weird-ass tawny domesticated short-tailed beast that got loose. and up there among the gods, well ... you never know.

yeah, spring. hear it roar.