Primitive societies mark the turnings of the year with special festivals: planting, harvest, the returning of the birds from wherever they went to for the winter.
We should have modern equivalents, festivals celebrating the last lawn mowing, the first running of the air conditioner, that sort of thing... Today, for instance, would have been the Festival of The First Time The Top Went Down On The Convertible This Year.
We got the bikes out for the first time today.
ReplyDeleteClearly, your weather is warmer than ours. Today was the First Time the Natives Wore Shorts with Their Parkas.
ReplyDeleteSunday, 14 March. Western Minnesota. Near 50 degrees. Harley-Davidson Road King out of the garage and on the road for an hour! Parrr-Teee!
ReplyDeleteJon B.
The Ides of March. 1st time one could venture to the range in footware that wasn't gore-tex lined or knee high rubber sheep molester boots.
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday the Miata had its battery charged, its tires inflated to spec, and was fired up and taken out on the parkways with the top down.
ReplyDeleteThe Ides of March were upon us in Minnesnowta.
Course, I've been riding the 'Wing to work for a week and a half, but that's just cause I'm nuts.
Ooh! Ooh! WV: "wings"
Hey, who you callin' primitive? In this part of Fla we mark our changing seasons with the "returning of the 'birds" *to* wherever they came *from*, which come to think of it, is largely right in your neck of the Yankee woods.
ReplyDeleteWe celebrate with unclogged roads, no waiting for restaurant tables, and a respite from bitching, whining, and complaining about the weather, the bugs, the "help", and unending stories of "how we do it up north"...thank God they're going and gone.
But, um, ya'll come back now, ya hear?
AT
There are actually still Southrons in FL?
ReplyDeleteThe rumor back in GA was that everybody south of the Okefenokee was a Yankee transplant or furrin import by the mid-'80s.
True enough to the south, east, and west...but note the qualifier: "In this part of Fla..."
ReplyDeleteStill plenty of bible thumpin' and cousin humpin' going on in the Heartland. AT
I figured somebody had to be fighting a rearguard action. :)
ReplyDeleteMy comment today, while playing hookey from all the firearms, was "I could use about two years of this stuff". Sunny, 62 degrees, 2 to 5 mph breeze, and, if the weather holds, the great optomistic ritual of the year might begin this weekend.
ReplyDeleteSaturday and Sunday in the boatyard, starting the Phoenix from it's nest. It takes about a month, if I get 4 good weekends in a row.
A hole in the water, into which you pour money, but when the wind bites and she heels and steadies, look out Captain Cooke. SPRING!
Aww, man, I thought it was top down IN the convertible.
ReplyDeleteFarther north folks used to drive or tow an old beater out onto the frozen ice of a lake and run a pool on what day and time it would fall through the ice.
ReplyDeleteNot terribly earth-fuzzy but what the heck.
gvi
Not terribly earth-fuzzy but what the heck.
ReplyDeleteFeh. Just drain the fluids and the oil first. The environment is like kids -- it can handle a lot more "contamination" than you'd think.
I saw someone cutting grass yesterday. The weeds are knee deep in many places.
ReplyDeleteGVI and Johanna: The car-on-the-ice trick is alive and well on my lake. In a bit of shameless self-promotion, I just posted the live-cam link over at my place.
ReplyDeleteYesterday was my first "over-exert myself on a bike ride and then beg for death's sweet release when my foot cramps up at bedtime" day.
ReplyDeleteGood times, good times.
You know what can trigger a Mid-life crisis? When your son takes the convertible on the first good day of the season ...
ReplyDeleteOut here in Cali, it's the A/C that's our marker. I've had the A/C on in the truck for a couple weeks now, and don't expect it to be put back in the "off" position until November.
ReplyDeleteKewl. I used by a/c for the first time this year about 3 weeks ago.
ReplyDeleteTexas
"the live-cam link..."
ReplyDeleteDickinson County. You have my sympathy, Jim. I lived there for several years.
Wednesday: 68 and clear.
ReplyDeleteThursday: 68 and clear.
Friday: 30 and 5-10 inches.
Springtime in the Rockies.