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MORGANTOWN -- I'll be honest.
I'm tired of it, this getting up every morning and turning on the news and hearing about mass shootings, Russian attacks on Ukraine, failing banks, friends like Mike Shannon, the former Cardinals third baseman and broadcaster, dying.
See, I go to bed smitten with spring fever.
It is, after all, mid-spring and, darn it, things just can't be as bad as they seem in this world.
It's kind of like the old Rodgers and Hammerstein song from the movie "State Fair" entitled "It Might as Well Be Spring".
The movie was released on Aug. 30, 1945, just 24 days after the Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, bringing to an end the nightmare that was World War II.
That was when the lyrics were sung on the screen first time, letting us all know that spring is not a season at all, but instead a state of mind:
I'm as restless as a willow in a windstorm,
I'm as jumpy as a puppet on a string,
I'd say that I had spring fever,
But I know it isn't spring.
I'm as starry eyed and gravely discontented,
Like a nightingale without a song to sing.
Oh, why should I have spring fever,
When it isn't even spring?
Well, it is spring now, the middle of spring, and it's time West Virginia sports fans realize that they, too, can be "as restless as willow in a windstorm" because things are getting better and these last few weekends should have given us all a case of spring fever.
The spring football game had come and gone and the weather, that was supposed to be so bad, was surprisingly good 鈥� and so were the athletes so few people watched.
Good news. CJ Donaldson was out there running without so much as a limp and without any pain and talking about being fully recovered from a broken leg that ended his season in 2022.
Garrett Greene, the quarterback, showed himself ready to latch on to the starting job, although coach Neal Brown is intent on keeping that as competitive as he can, which makes all the sense in the world as you don't expect one quarterback to endure throughout an entire season without problems.
A freshman running back named Jaheim White thrust his name into the running back rotation with a stunning performance in which he led all runners in yards gained, flashing an elusive, evasive style that will complement the others in the room.
You might say he was "as jumpy as a puppet on a string."
Along with that, on Saturday, Dante Stills, an All-American you can root for, not just because he is from West Virginia, not just because he's from Fairmont, not just because he plays for WVU, was drafted into the NFL in the sixth round and few, if any, have given more of themselves to reach such a place.
Spring, of course, is the time the flowers bloom and baseball casts its spell upon us and all of a sudden we're looking at well might wind up being the best spring in the program's history, the team have swept both Baylor and TCU in three-game series while making it an eight-game winning string with non-conference victories over Pitt and Penn State.
Coach Randy Mazey has sprung a surprise on the nation with a team that runs, hits, fields, steals bases and pitches 鈥� and that has the best hitter in the Big 12 in JJ Wetherholt and maybe the best hitter in the nation.
They have all of us, as the song says, "as busy as a spider spinning daydreams" as we rush to Mon County Ballpark to watch them play.
Meanwhile, Bob Huggins keeps pulling off one recruiting coup after another through the transfer portal, creating as much excitement about the coming season as has been with the Mountaineer basketball team since the Press Virginia days.
It may not be basketball season but the truth is basketball is dominating the scene, so much so that rather than get in a lather about the popular Jimmy Bell Jr. deciding to transfer, it seems Mountaineer Nation, as they like to think of themselves, are joining together to wish him well in his last collegiate adventure, wherever that may lead him.
Add into this new women's basketball coach, Mark Kellogg, who is moving seamlessly into his job under a new athletic director, Wren Baker, who has done likewise into his, and you are given an alternative to the problems and fears the outside world is tossing at you.
When you awake tomorrow morning, remember that it is spring and throw open the window, take a whiff of freshly mowed grass, of newly blooming flowers. Think graduation day and high school proms and soft spring rain 鈥� and, for a change, think about West Virginia athletics as a rainbow and hope it leads you to that pot of gold at the end of it that you've waited so long to find.