I’ve thought about what I’ll write today, but then it started snowing and my brain sort of froze.
Yes, it’s currently snowing in the desert. Here we say that the month of May is so named because it may snow, it may rain, it may be hot, it may be windy … So far we’ve had everything on that list except the heat. Don’t worry, next Sunday it’s predicted to be sunny and 85 degrees.
Personally I’m blaming Heather for the change in weather – just this week I caught her pulling out her summer clothes. I try to keep the weather calm by never washing my car, so far that’s not been working.
Whenever there is wind here in the “Greater Reno-Carson City-Miden Area” the locals often remind each other what Mark Twain once wrote on the subject:
“It was two o’clock, now, and according to custom the daily “Washoe Zephyr” set in… a Washoe wind is by no means a trifling matter. It blows flimsy houses down, lifts shingle roofs occasionally, rolls up tin ones like sheet music, now and then blows a stage-coach over and spills the passengers; and tradition says the reason there are so many bald people there is, that the wind blows the hair off their heads while they are looking skyward after their hats.”
Personally I think Mr. Twain understated the case. I’ve often wondered how much unsecured lawn furniture gets blown over the Virginia Mountain Range and ends up in Fallon.
It’s also Mother’s Day. Not the best weather for it. The local National Weather Service office did officially apologize to all mothers on their Facebook page and promised to have better weather next year. It wasn’t too long after that post that the California Highway Patrol announced on their FB page that there are now chain controls over I-80 and the first weather related accident should happen before sunset.
On the Mother’s Day front, I managed to have my card presented to Heather before breakfast and I’ve ranked the kids based on the order in which they called their Mother today (just because they’re all over 40 is no reason to not call them “kids”). Turns out the one on vacation in Florida was the first. I was going to discount this slightly because of the three hour time difference, but because the next child to call was six hours later, our current number one child is the FL vacationer.
I did read a Mother’s Day poetry book today. Just last month Robert Okaji over at robertokaji.com announced his chapbook was on sale, so I bought a copy. The title is My Mother’s Ghost Scrubs the Floor at 2 a.m. I waited till Mother’s Day to read it. It’s good, go buy a copy.
Yesterday when it was just windy and not snowing, Heather and I went to a book launch event for Michael P. Branch and his new book, On the Trail of the Jackalope: How a Legend Captured the World’s Imagination and Helped Us Cure Cancer. We bought a copy and got it signed. It’s nice to be able to attend events like this again. This is a book you’ll want to buy. It’s a great combination of humor and serious and helps support one of our Nevada writers.
Before it started snowing I was thinking of rewriting one of my past posts, “How to Get Me to Read and Like Your Blog” Okay, I wrote that one in 2015, but after seven years, I think it could do with an update. I just reread that post and yup, it could use an update. I think I’d revise it to make one major point: If I can’t figure out what you are saying within 15 seconds, I’m out. I generally rank blogs I’m thinking of following on this scale:
- Wow, love it! Follow, like and comment.
- Maybe, I’ll follow for awhile.
- Good but I don’t follow women’s fashion blogs.
- No, I’m not buying whatever you’re selling.
- OMG, I hope no one ever finds out that I clicked on that link.
Now that I’m older, it does take a lot more to get my attention. I mean, I’m starting to see the calendar pages fly by faster and faster so you’ve got to do something to really get me to click a link. Except for poetry, woodworking and kitty pictures blogs – I just click on those without thinking.
It has stopped snowing for the moment and my brain isn’t feeling as frozen. Sadly, it’s also time to go make our Sunday pizza so I have to stop writing now. Hopefully next week I’ll still remember what I was going to write about this week.
