Three Significant Events.

First, in Boston on Tuesday, the town—in fact, all of New England—will celebrate the Patriots amazing come-from-way-behind win over Atlanta in Sunday’s Super Bowl.
 
Second, on Monday—and frankly of far greater significance to me personally—there was the annual, unfailing harbinger of Spring—Truck Day!
 

 On this day every year, in preparation for the next Major League Baseball season, virtually the entire contents of the Red Sox clubhouse in Fenway Park is loaded onto a 53-foot-long trailer truck and driven 1,480 miles to Fort Myers, Florida, where Spring Training for the Boston Red Sox will begin next week.
 
This year—if it was done in the past I missed it—the Red Sox provided a fascinating if partial list of the contents of the truck:
 
20,400 baseballs
1,100 bats
200 batting gloves
200 batting helmets
320 Batting Practice tops
160 white game jerseys
300 pairs of pants
400 t-shirts
400 pairs of socks
20 cases of bubble gum
60 cases of sunflower seeds
 
The long, dull, almost lifeless winter is over. Let THE game begin!
 
 
 The third event, if I may be permitted to include a personal note: last week, my granddaughter, Lehua, age 9, presented me with a remarkable gift on the occasion of a milestone birthday: two five dollar bills, representing several weeks worth of her allowance. They were given with the caveat that I was to spend the money on ice cream for the two of us at the Baskin-Robbins store in Maui Mall. That event took place this afternoon. She had one scoop of Rainbow Sherbet; I had a Classic Banana Split that cost $7.99 and was worth every cent!