Putting the Punk in Punxatawny

Speaking of whom...

The annual rite of spring here in my little corner of the Midway is Anoka Flash's ceremonial First Tapping of the Kegerator - a keg fridge he keeps in his garage. Once spring springs and the fizzy flows, the boys 'n da hood can be seen in the Flash driveway all summer, looking like the guys in King Of The Hill for the following five months.

It's an event awaited as eagerly as Mardi Gras in this little corner of the world. We check the weather as we leave the house in the morning, lingering a bit to see if the sun feels remotely warm, hoping we're one last chilly snap away from that magical threshold that brings Flash up the driveway with that first sixteen-gallon sign that summer is on the way.

After the kegerator, the blooming of my magnolia bush is almost anticlimactic.