March Madness

The weather is a funny thing. Driving home from work late last night it was very, very foggy. The closer I got to home, the more lightning I saw in the distant sky above the farm. There’s snow on the ground, it’s foggy, it’s lightning, it’s 50 degrees. It is March, folks, and anything goes here in the Midwest when it comes to the weather.
　
My cousin, Carol, in Minnesota said this morning that they were suffering through thunder, lightening and more rain which made for nearly three inches since Tuesday morning (it is Thursday today). We had temps in the 50's yesterday in southwestern Wisconsin and with nasty, misty, rainy weather coinciding with it, it is very muddy. And dirty. That is one thing I hate about this time of year — things are dirty. If you drive on the interstates or divided highways in the country and with the snow melted, the medians are dirty and littered with trash that was hidden up until the recent snow melted. March in Wisconsin means anything from beautiful sunny (teasing) weather to flipping the coin and a few of our last big snowstorms.
　
The only good part about a snowstorm in March is that you know it isn’t going to last long on the ground – so it is, therefore, tolerable. There is something of a old "wive’s tale"- if you wish - in the Madison area, and that is with the state boys and girls basketball tournaments in the first to mid-parts of March, it is almost always predictable that when the boys teams head to state, there is a snowstorm. Sometimes Mother Nature likes to spice things up a bit to keep us on our toes and hits us with one when the girls play instead. Either way, we are generally going to be hit with a bigger blast of snow within those two weeks. The WIAA has changed things up this year and the girls play first which is this coming weekend. It is predicted to be a nice (but rainy) weekend. So, that means watch out next weekend. In basketball terms, it is always known as March Madness and it certainly is.
　
Early this morning I emailed my Mother (with copies to all the siblings) to wish her a happy anniversary. My father passed away 26 years ago this past January, but nevertheless, I still wish my mom a happy anniversary on this date every year. It would have been 59 years this year. She usually reminds us kids about the weather that year when they got married. And it wasn’t any different this year. She recalled that on the day of her wedding - a Sunday - it was a beautiful sunny day. Back then, for some reason, a wedding and the reception were typically on a Sunday and then the wedding dance followed on the next night – a Monday. With a beautifully sunny wedding day, you would expect the next to be just as nice. Not in this March case. Instead, it was a blizzard. It was so bad that cars were stalled coming back from their wedding dance which was a few miles from her family farm. My mom and dad had spent their wedding night at a hotel in Madison but on the second night of their honeymoon - the night of the dance – they had to end up staying at her parents’ home. I know she said that she was totally unprepared for that to happen, because before she would let my father stay in her old bedroom that night, she had to go and clean it up first. I thought she had recalled, too, at one time that they had a few extra people spending the night as well. March is March and whether it comes in or goes out like a lion or a lamb, everything in between is up for grabs.
　
My husband, Bob and I got married in the middle of April at the same country church my mom and dad were married at. The church is actually just about a mile or two from her family farm where my uncle Roger still lives today. I thought April might be a nice time to get married, plus it was exactly one year from the date of our engagement so the date was special to us. As it turned out, it rained that morning. The rain dried up later by the time of the wedding but right before and after the wedding ceremony the wind kicked up big time. It was so blustery that in a couple pictures with the two of us standing outside the country church my veil is standing straight out beside me. We didn’t have snow but it was a little cooler than I expected but still pleasant. But that was April and usually all you expect then is rain.
　
Whether it is March or April, the end of Winter is near and that is always a good thing. This has been a very long winter and I, for one, am ready for it to end and break out into sunshine with daffodils and tulips emerging through the dirty ground. I’ve already had plenty of birds knocking on my windows as they perch on the branches that sometimes reach over in front of my house windows. Some have seen my Xmas trees and are longer for greener branches instead of woody, barren ones, so they peck, peck away at the glass and even sometimes try to fly in. (Reminds you of that glass commercial where the glass is so clean the birds try to fly through them.) Now, mind you, I’m not saying that my windows are that clean, but I am sure that spring chore is going to be staring at me pretty soon. But this year the thought of it doesn’t even bother me too much. If it is a Spring chore, right now I am looking forward to it.

With the ground a dirty brown, the farm a muddy mess, I’m having visions of the UPS driver making his Spring pilgrimages to the farm delivering new plants. My last order consisted of a few Red Hot Pokers, Clara Curtis Daisies, Blue Bird Rose of Sharons and Freedom Rose of Sharons and to make myself feel better, I just had to check to see when my new plants were set to arrive. Upon checking all the websites from my orders, it appears most are set to arrive sometime mid- to late-April. That is really only a month away. I’m hoping that everything starts to green up by then, the snow is completely melted away and the mud has disappeared.
　
In the meantime, the mud and little slivers of snow on the ground will have to do. Thoughts of March Madness will hopefully soon drift to April Showers. But fair warning and note to sister Suzi: when you bring the girls down this weekend, make sure you pack their boots or trying to feed the calves isn’t going to be pretty! LOL!