Just thought I'd share a picture that made me happy. My lilac is budding. Spring is finally here. I love the first little bits of green that pop out; it really makes me feel that winter is finally over. Don't get me wrong, I like winters here. Snow is good, but you really get tired of it after so many months. Spring just makes me happy. Speaking of seasons: spring means summer, and summers here are HOT. Last year, at the end of the summer, our swamp cooler started to die. Not all at once, but it got harder and harder to turn it on and have it actually turn the fan. We finally broke down a few weeks ago and bought a new one, but it still needs to be installed on the roof. Brian and his dad got it up on the roof yesterday, and today we have a guy coming to get it installed. Here's hoping everything works correctly. We were going to install it last weekend, but when they got it out of the box it had a big dent in the side, like someone had dropped it. Fortunately, Lowe's didn't have any problem taking it back and swapping it for one that wasn't damaged, but we had to wait another week for the installation. It's not really hot yet, so that's not a big deal. I'll post pictures of the process. If I'm not working, I should at least record the efforts of those who are. ;)