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Have you noticed?

By PAT WICK

© Another Day in the Country

Have you noticed the color of the sky on a cloudy winter day? An artist would take dabs of ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, and alizarin crimson on their paint palette to make that shade of gray.

Have you noticed evenings seem so much longer now and days shorter? Have you noticed that the weeks go by faster every year?

Have you noticed that your children call and you don't know what to tell them that might be exciting or really interesting? Have you noticed that when you see your neighbors you have a tendency to just talk about the weather?

Have you noticed how things tend to accumulate on the dining room table? And isn't it disgusting how crumbs gather in the corner of the silverware drawer?

Have you noticed how difficult it is to say you're sorry or how long it takes to break a habit or make a new one?

Have you noticed that even though it is winter and we've had long spells of freezing weather that those silly little foreign beetles that resemble lady bugs are still showing up in the house?

Have you noticed that your peer group is getting so much older and you wonder what you have in common any more?

Have you noticed that while you used to be size 10 it's now 14 and that every year shoes get a little smaller?

Have you noticed the latest new nickels with unfamiliar designs on the backside and how $20 bills with color on them make you feel like you're in a foreign country?

Have you noticed there's a penny shortage and wonder who's collecting all of them, until you empty out the dish on your dresser?

Have you noticed how smart kids are about computers and how few of them know phonics?

Have you noticed that you still have your Christmas lights up and the reindeer jumping toward the roof has fallen over in the mud?

Have you noticed how few windmills and tall silos remain on the Kansas landscape? Have you noticed how there's a tinge of green on the wheat fields and how stark the trees look on the horizon?

Have you noticed that the tulips already are sprouting in the ground and that spring buds of lilacs are already all in place?

These things and more, we notice on another day in the country.

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