ALL LAST WEEK I COULD FEEL IT. This spring thing is about to happen. It happens every year and I never fail to notice when it does. But I'm always a few days behind. I always anticipate spring and I always think I'll be there when it happens. It's kind of like waiting for a street light to turn on in the gathering dusk. I think I actually did it one night. I waited for the click that preceeds the illumination and then I blinked my eyes and it was light out.

Spring beat me again this year. I felt on top of it. I was certain I would know exactly when it happened, when all hell would break loose in the trees and bushes, when nature let slip the hounds of blossoms, those amazing colors of white and pink, the awakening of South Street. It happens ever year.

And it happened again Sunday when I had my back turned. I see this tree on Waverly Street whenever I stop for a beer at Dirty Frank's, which means I see this tree quite a bit. And I've been watching this tree lately the way Ralph Kramden watched Norton. "I got my eye on you, Norton!" But Swanee River happened when I wasn't looking.

Monday, sunny Monday, I saw this on the 1300 block of Waverly Street. What had once been a plumber's crack of brown branches against the sky had overnight become a song. The same old song every year, and I'm always amazed. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

Incidently, that skyscraper under construction (31 storys used to be a skycraper) is Symphony House, the mucho swank condominium tower at Broad and Pine Sts..