If you did not set your clocks forward one hour before you went to bed last night, you might be late for something right now.

But if you remembered, you are probably one of the many folks who sees the “spring forward” of the clocks as a sign that spring has just about made its entrance.

I don’t know about you, but I am ready. Yes, I’ve resigned myself to mopping up muddy dogprints in the entryway only once a week. (It does no good. It looks like I never touched it about an hour later.) But it’s just too tempting not to look up when my favorite campground opens again, when the West Virginia Power play their first home game, when WVU plays its Gold-Blue Spring Game, what seeds the almanac thinks I can get away with planting in mid March … which isn’t much.

And, yes, I know. I was telling someone the other day I’m sure I’ll be whining loudly the first time it is 90 degrees and humid about how I can’t wait for fall.

But that’s a few months away.

Right now I am just ready for that climb back out of the gray, damp, cold gloom.

I’m ready to leave behind so much of what was ugly this winter — and that includes this year’s legislative session. It is appropriate that hours after the close of the session, every West Virginian got to literally spring forward an hour. Time could not speed away from that nastiness quickly enough.

Certainly there is more drama to come. The special session requested to address education issues will not be simple — and I do hope lawmakers take to heart the suggestion that they need to come home and talk to teachers, administrators, union reps, parents … the people on the ground when it comes to trying to give our kids the best chance to learn and succeed.

For now, though, I am glad not to have to worry what promise will be broken today (though, really, I’ve been paying attention to politics long enough that it SHOULD no longer surprise or disappoint me. But it does). I am glad not to have to worry about whether the adult in the room is going to be strong enough to maintain control over the embarrassments who seemed to be the loudest at times. I’m glad there will be fewer opportunities to wonder out loud “Who thinks this is OK?!”

Much of the work lawmakers have to do between now and the special session is going to be healing. Listening without a predetermined stance that makes them react as though they are being attacked when presented with new ideas and information will be a plus, too.

We are all West Virginians. We all (well, OK, most of us) want what is best for our kids, our state, our economy, our beautiful natural resources … everything. Nearly all of us are genuinely trying to create a better Mountain State. The public persona of one delegate makes it seem as though he is rather determined to sabotage it as best he can, and I hope his constituents tell him that, when he returns to Mercer County.

We’ll get past all that, though. We always do.

We have sprung forward, the weather is (slowly) changing, and brighter days are just ahead.

Christina Myer is executive editor of The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. She can be reached via e-mail at cmyer@newsandsentinel.com