It's Friday and the last day of February. It seems trite to state the obvious, but time passes more quickly as I age. Months go by so quickly that I am surprised by the passage of time. There have been a lot of things about retiring that have been different than I expected. Before I retired, I thought that the pace might slow down when I got retired. I would have more time for hobby projects, more time to sit and read, more time to work in the garden, more time to go for walks and take trips. Five years in, the pace of my life doesn’t seem to have slowed. The next few weeks seem pretty hectic with a trip to Cleveland, several events involving our grandchildren that I don’t want to miss, a couple of important doctor’s appointments, and a list of undone chores at home. To add to the sense of not having enough time, I have a summons for jury duty next week. That might mean I need to make a phone call and won’t have to report. It will likely mean that I need to report on Monday but will not be empaneled and will have the rest of the week off. It could, however, mean that I will be selected to serve on a jury, which could be a process completed in a day or take more than a week.

A little uncertainty is good for me. I don’t want to fall into my routines so much that I get stuck in my ways. One of the blessings of my life is that there has always been a degree of uncertainty combined with a degree of flexibility in the work I do. When I was working, a call might mean I needed to go out in the middle of the night for a couple of hours, but I might also have the flexibility to nap after lunch the next day. There are just a few jobs that I have had in my life that involved punching a time clock. Mostly, I didn’t have to think about how many hours I worked. I thought about work to be accomplished and kept working until the job was completed. Of course, I have always had deadlines. As a student, work needed to be completed to earn grades. As a working preacher, I had to be prepared for Sunday worship each week regardless of what other tasks also had to be done.

Unlike some places where I have lived, the end of February brings definite signs of spring. There is a daffodil blooming in our front bed, and many other bulbs are producing growth. Our daughter-in-law said she got peas planted yesterday, and some of my neighbors were mowing their lawns this week. I’ve got a bunch of mulch in the back of my pickup that must be unloaded and spread in various beds around our yard. The back fence needs to be painted. I can find a long list of seasonal chores to add to my to-do list.

Yesterday, we were in Skagit County, about 50 miles south of our home, and we noticed that the Trumpeter Swans and Snow Geese are starting to gather in the fields, preparing for their trip north. The Canada geese are ahead of them, and we’ve seen quite a few heading north over the past few weeks. Trumpeter Swans and Snow Geese are around about half of the year, but with warmer temperatures, they have been leaving a bit earlier in recent years.

They weren’t the only ones heading north. When we travel north on the Interstate, we pass a sign that gives the wait times for border crossing. Usually, wait times are less than five minutes, so people are used to crossing the border frequently with little difficulty. Yesterday, however, the crossing preferred by the big trucks showed wait times of more than 40 minutes. That is the longest wait time since a Taylor Swift Concert in Vancouver backed up traffic at the crossing enough to create gridlock in town.

Delays can occur for a variety of reasons. A single vehicle that sets off a full inspection can back up traffic. Most often, the delays are caused by increased traffic. The big trucks hauling all kinds of goods are part of a scramble of merchants trying to ensure their inventory is on the right side of the border when tariffs are imposed. The thread of hefty tariffs going into effect has many companies trying to get their goods to Canada ahead of next week’s expected impositions.

The geese and swans don’t bother going through the border crossings, and so far Customs and Border Protection haven’t been stopping them when they fly or swim across the border. I’ve even seen geese boldly walking across the border at peace park, and unlike human pedestrians, they encounter no contact with border patrol.

An international border is an artificial line in many ways. Not only do wild animals cross without being noticed, but there are also lots of families with members that live on both sides of the border. A family dinner might involve border crossing. Children who live at Point Roberts can attend elementary school in their town, but when they get to high school, they ride a bus that crosses into Canada, then crosses back to the US on their way to school and do two more border crossings on their way home. We have friends who live in the US and work in Canada and know others who live in Canada and work in the US.

Border crossings from Canada to the US are down by 30 to 40 percent in recent weeks. Our neighbors are feeling a bit of animosity over the rhetoric of the US President since the inauguration. He does seem to be confused about who your closest allies are and often speaks of friends as if they are enemies and cozies up to bullies and dictators as if they are friends. Enough Canadians have taken offense for local restaurants, gas stations, and shops to notice.

Spring brings lots to do. March brings lots to observe. Life goes on with a rapid pace, and the list of chores grows longer. Things are pretty normal around here.