Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
So here we are in almost mid-March. Trees are showing leaf buds and blooms, flowers are popping out of the ground. Night time temps are still in the mid-thirties, but daytime temps are up in the fifties and sixties. Tonight we change the clocks ahead one hour in anticipation of Spring, which this year is already happening.
I don’t much care for winter cold, but I’m wondering if trees budding in the beginning of March is such a good thing?
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
So after a long dry spell it’s time for another edition of This and That; all the news fit to print and a whole lot more.
So to catch up on current news; The Covid-19 pandemic is almost over except for all the places it’s not. Floods are washing out Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, London, and parts of China. The Northwestern United States is burning up while roving gangs of MAGA-morons roam the vast wastelands waiting for their savior trump to return to the White House in a blaze of glory. Across the street from the White House, Congress-people are locked in a macabe dance of swords, fingers in their ears, screaming “I Can’t Hear You!”
In good news; today is pizza day, the second time we’ve had Costco pizza in sixteen months. I guess we take whatever good we can find and run with it.
So today is day one hundred-eleven (111) for staying safer-at-home against the novel coronavirus that’s taking over the world. Or more properly, the novel coronavirus that has taken over the world. I can’t help noticing that 111 plus 888 equals 999, which is supposed to be the symbol of the beast. There might be something numerologist about this, but I really don’t want to spend too much thinking about it.
I really just want this zombie apocalypse pandemic to end.
Even though this is nominally April Fools Day, I can’t help noticing how few April Fools pranks are actually being played today. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that nothing anybody could do would be disbelieved. Four months ago if you told someone an awkwardly-titled thing called “coronavirus” could cause so much chaos, they wouldn’t believe you.
Our president trump certainly didn’t.
So we’re having our first snow for Winter 2018 – 2019. Not too much; the snow just lightly blankets the grass and covers the roofs. But schools are all closed, roads are snarled, and normally-bustling offices are half-empty. All for a little snow.
And now, just like that, the snow stopped. Life goes on.
So today the wind is blowing hard. Hard enough to shut down governments and schools and force people inside their homes. Power lines are tumbling and trees are dropping. The airports are closed and railroad trains are stopped. All because of wind. Strong winds changed the daily life-plans of millions of people. Maybe strong enough winds blowing long enough can change the direction of history?
After a long writing hiatus, I’m back in action. Time flies when you’re having fun, time flies when you’re not having fun, time flies when you’re busy, and time flies when you’re not looking. So why can’t we ever catch time and stash it away for a rainy day?
This Christmas I decided it’s time to catch up my loyal readers with all the news fit to print (and more) on the Virginia edition of the Charest family. This has been a good year, and a busy year, for both Winnie and me.
It’s cherry blossom festival in our nation’s capital this week. Trees that survived the erratic winter are preening their all for hordes of gawking tourists who come from near and far to admire the temporary pink flowers. Meanwhile, chaos continues apiece in the Charest household eclipsed only by the magnitude of chaos in our centers of government power.
So yesterday we entered the time of year colloquially known as “Daylight Savings Time.” For those readers who live in a place civilized enough to not do daylight savings; the concept is that if you cut off the top two inches of a sheet of paper and tape it to the bottom of the sheet, you make the sheet longer.
The people who came up with this idea run the world.
We’re in the dog days of August but time still seems to be flying by. So many chances of fun have passed without actually seizing the moment. Those few moments of fun that actually happened stand out like jewels in the cluttered mass of routine that hardly vary from one season to the next. It seems there’s just not enough time to do fun stuff, but always enough time to do the chores of daily life.