PINK DAY

Thursday started out to be a gloomy, cloudy day with a stiff northwest wind. I think that was why I didn’t realize right away that it was Pink Day.

Later that afternoon, maybe around 2 p.m., the clouds started disappearing and the sun made its way out. The temperature climbed and the sky was almost completely blue when I started my four miler at about 3:30 p.m. I hadn’t gone a half a block when it hit me: it was Pink Day—the day the flowering crab trees in our neighborhood burst out in their pink blossoms, announcing that it is finally spring.

We have a flowering crab tree right outside our living room window, too, that on Pink Day at sunset makes the whole living room take on a rosy glow. Over the years on Pink Day, I grab whomever happens to be around and stand them in front of the flowering crab tree for a picture. Sometimes it’s one of my children—or maybe two. Sometimes it’s a cat. Sometimes it’s one of my children holding a cat.

Pink Day 1991

I can remember several years when Pink Day came in early May when I was still teaching. I always resented the waste of all those pink blossoms at home, peaking out, while I was stuck inside a building at work. But this year, of course, I am able to maximize the pinkness. Retired people have all the luck.

Pink Day 2008

Halleluiah! Pink Day is here! Luckily, I have a "kid" home for Memorial Day weekend—now all I need is my camera and a cat!

Pink Day 2009