Playin' chicken, per usual

 I hear the chirping of birds outside my window this morning, as gray light comes up on the day.

The piles of snow outside the same window have withered to narrow scraps of white where the plows have moved them aside.

According to my weather app, it's supposed to hit 63 here this weekend. Sixty-freaking-three.

I guess the calendar ain't lyin', in other words.

It's March.

It's March, first week of, which here in Indiana means basketball sectional week. A million trace memories attend it: The rhythmic whack-whack of ball on hardwood; the  adolescent shriek of cheerleaders; the rich aroma of popcorn overlaying everything. In the very words "sectional week," you can hear the snarl of a buzzer and the bleat of an official's whistle, and see shreds of nylon in the fists of teenagers at the end of it all on Saturday night.

I'll tell you something you can see, here in the first week of March: Bullstuff walking.

Remember last week, when Major League Baseball declared if a new collective bargaining agreement couldn't be reached by end of business Monday, they'd start canceling regular-season games?

Well, that was exactly what almost everyone thought it was: MLB playin' chicken with the players.

Because here it is Tuesday morning, and, gee, they're still talkin'. Opening Day, and any subsequent Days, are still on. Apparently, there has been "movement" in the talks, which is another way of saying everyone's quit screwing around and decided to get serious.

This happens so often in these deals a lot of us just shrugged when MLB laid down its ultimatum last week. You knew, instinctively, that it wasn't really an ultimatum. It was just more off-Broadway theater, a little chest-thumping pantomime before everyone inevitably settled down and said "OK, let's do this."

As of now, apparently, both sides are still talking. The sense here is they won't stop talking until they have a deal. Even with baseball's legendary brain-cell deficit, it's hard to believe the principals would be so witless as to submarine the start of a season in an era when the game is struggling as it is to maintain relevance.

I mean, what if they canceled Opening Day, and nobody noticed?

Because that could happen. And that's got to be a lot scarier for both sides than talking to one another.