Saturday, March 15, 2008

Beware the Ides of March.

Yeah. I thought winter was over. Not so much, though. I went over to Dan & Rae's house to play Pinocle and it was snowing a little as I left the house. For a second I thought about taking the Subaru, but decided it was unnecessary and headed out in Old Blue. After all, it's the middle of March, spring is right around the corner, the weather forecast was for rain & snow mix and it's been warm enough that the snow won't stick to the roads anyway. Yeah, right. Six inches of snow awaited me when it was time to go home, and it was sticking to the roads. I wasn't too worried, even though Old Blue is rear wheel drive, it's heavy enough to get around in the snow, and it was mostly slush on the ground, but I have a long driveway, uphill and steep at the beginning, so it was enough to make me wish I had taken the Subaru. But alas, in Salt Lake a couple of miles makes a big difference in weather conditions. At my house there wasn't more than a couple inches of snow, and the roads were rivers of water rather than even slush. (Through the snowflakes you can see the water flowing down the road by my house, or at least you can see the reflection of the taillights on the water). So, there was a little bit of snow on the driveway, I had to take it easy up the driveway, and avoid stopping, but I made it into the garage no problem. Yea me.

6 comments:

A Paperback Writer said...

Funny! I almost did a post yesterday on the snow with exactly the same title, but then I got too busy and never got around to it.
Ah, great minds think alike....

Max Sartin said...

Early bird gets the worm, no? I Wikipedia'd "Ides" and found out that I was born on the Ides of April. So, some people would warn "Beware the Ides of April". We will hear more on this subject next month....

A Paperback Writer said...

Yes, but Shakespeare didn't make the ides of April famous by insisting that someone important (Julius Caesar, in the case of the Ides of March) was killed on that day (although April 13 is a national holiday involving water fights in Thailand -- but I doubt Shakespeare knew that).
And I was born on the Ides of July, for that matter, but Shakespeare didn't know about Harrison Ford's b-day (which I share), either. So you and I are about even on the whole Ides business, which is just mainly supposed to be unlucky anyway.

Max Sartin said...

Yeah, but I plan on making the Ides of April famous, and for something good. Having a birthday that is shared with waterfights in Thailand seems pretty lucky to me. I'm gonna have to learn more about that and somehow incorporate it into my birthday celebrations. Thanks for the heads up.

Max Sartin said...

Songkran is the traditional Thai New Year Festival. It starts on April 13th and usually ends on the 15th. This is my kind of celebration, because not only does it start on my birthday, but it involves water and pranks. The water symbolizes cleansing, the washing away of bad luck. It is the day that Thai's traditionally wash their Buddah statues. The unmarried women of the villages will prank the unmarried men by ganging up on them, holding them down and painting them with blackening, whatever that is. Another tradition includes tying string around other's wrists and wishing them good luck in the new year.

A Paperback Writer said...

And, according to my ex-sister-in-law, who shares your birthday and who was a Mormon missionary in Thailand some years ago, you're really only supposed to sprinkle people with water, but it has become accepted to dump buckets of water on total strangers. Basically, if you're out on the street, you're fair game. If you want to stay dry, you stay indoors.
Obviously, I haven't spoken to this gal since her *&^%$ of a brother left me and poisoned the entire rest of his family against me with his lies (because, hey, why would he admit that he couldn't stand to be with a woman who was no longer a size 6 and had expired at the age of 35?). But that's the best I can remember of what she'd said about it.