Happy Spring. Free Rita's

Did you make it to Rita's for free Italian water ice on the first day of spring?  We never miss out.  We will forfeit dinner in order to get our child-sized Rita's.  The line wasn't too long this year.  I've seen it wrap around the building in previous years.

One thing that I fail to understand is how people form lines.  You see it at the mall all of the time.  People will line up one behind the other and mindlessly block all pedestrian traffic.  It was no different yesterday at Rita's in Eldersburg.  Rather than safely wrapping around the building, people lined up one behind the other straight out into the parking lot preventing cars from coming or going.  I even made it a point to wrap my family around the curb thinking that people would line up behind me and continue down the side of the building.  Nope.  The cows lined up back into the parking lot blocking traffic.  Moooo!  I'm stupid!  Mooo!

And another topic - my wife correctly assessed that children in kindergarten are not going to understand the weather.  Every day they are supposed to determine if it is sunny, cloudy, rainy, warm, or cold.  For the past several weeks, the correct answer has been cloudy and cold.  Because of the long running repetition, the next time it is sunny the kids are going to think that the correct answer is cloudy and cold.

How Hot Is It?

It was so hot yesterday (I feel like Johnny Carson) that the Eldersburg branch of the Carroll County Library system was closed. A sign posted on the door stated that it was due to lack of air conditioning. I will admit that the library is usually full of hot air, though not as much as there is in Annapolis. Anyway, I unfortunately did not have my camera with me to snap a picture of the sign.

My 2 year old daughter and nephew were disappointed that we didn't get to go into the library to play on the computers and pick up 45 Barney DVD's (12 of which are usually duplicates). But I did drop them off in the quick drop slots on the side of the building.

In related news, the Eldersburg library is getting a drive-thru drop-off. Not quite sure how they're going to do that. It'll either be in a Post Office-style drop box at the edge of the sidewalk on the main drive or they are going to have to wipe-out a bunch of parking spots to connect it to the main building on the side. If you know more about how it will work I'd love to know.

A Week in a Bottle

In a state that refuses to allow purchases of fine wines over the Internet (thank you Nathanial McFadden - that's sarcasm - I know you've been bought by the liquor board to vote that way!), we have had the most unbelievable week in my recent memory - and I have a bad memory.


We started last Saturday with a huge snowstorm - the most snow in the history of the state of Maryland according to Governor Martin O'Malley - despite the fact that we got more snow in the 2003 President's Day Blizzard. But then again, Martin O'Malley wasn't Governor then. He was slummin' it as the Mayor of Baltimore back when homicides were at their highest. Give credit to Sheila Dixon - murders dropped on her watch. Marty - why were there so many murders during your tenure as mayor???

In an unprecedented occurrence, another blizzard hit Maryland 4 days later. Was this another record for Maryland? Martin O'Malley gave the rhetoric - "we're moving forward. We are using our resources to effectively help the citizens of Maryland during this trying time. Blah-blah. Blah-blah-bla." Did you notice that the members of his administration were wearing really big boots while he was giving his speech? I think there's more on the ground than snow.


On the other hand, new mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is telling it like it is. When asked if side streets will be plowed soon, she replied 'not a chance'. You can dislike being stuck on a side-street, but you have to respect her honesty. I'm pulling for you, SRB!

Meanwhile, in my neighborhood, we went 2 days before being plowed out from the first snowstorm. I called the county and asked when we would get plowed and was told that most of the snow removal equipment was broken because the snow was so deep and heavy. Finally on Monday night I see this GIANT front-end loader pushing a mound of snow larger than several of my Honda Pilots.



Then the second storm hit. I heard that Martin O'Malley instructed Carroll County to not plow my neighborhood until tonight (almost 4 days after the storm) because he doesn't like the honesty of my blog. So at 8:45 tonight a plow FINALLY went down my street. However, it's been nearly 4 days and the street is nearly 8 inches of packed ice. Additionally. it's now in the 20's so the snow is now ice. The plows coming through had the same effect as me using a butter knife to slice ice cubes. It just didn't work. Do you think they'll come back tomorrow?

So as we look out our windows tonight with the Olympics blaring on our televisions, we hear news of another snow storm on the heels of our progress. Global warming experts are shifting their logic to say, 'global warming will cause it to be colder and snowier. It's common sense!' I don't know who to believe. The only thing I know is that my arm still hurts from shoveling snow and I'm tired.

Mother Nature - can you give us a break for a while? Please?

Martin O'Malley's State of Emergency

Martin O'Malley has declared a state of emergency. I'm not sure if this is a recognition of his failures as a Governor or if it has to do with the weather. More details as they become available.

Surprise - Snow!!!

Last night the weather people said that we would most likely wake up to some icy streets. If there was snow it would be farther out west.

I woke up this morning at 6:50am to the sound of a shovel scraping against the pavement. I quickly sprang to my feet, threw open the sash, and show a fat little man and eight tiny reindeer. Oops, wrong story. I awoke and peeked behind the honeycomb blinds and looked out the double-paned Anderson windows and saw that it had snowed.

I went downstairs and looked out the front door and saw that we got about 2 inches of snow and ice. So we live way out west? And they say that we may get more of the same tonight. Icy streets or more snow?

One of my friends posted on Facebook "Where did all this snow come from?" My retort? "the sky!"

If I did my job as accurately as the weathermen, (or is it weather people?), I would have been fired a long time ago.