After The Nor'easter Bunny

Hello World,     YIKES! As I think we're all pretty much aware by now, any time you have a month that starts on a Sunday, within a couple of weeks you'll be staring down both barrels of a Friday the 13th, like it or don't, and right now that's just about where we find ourselves, thanks not. Hopefully everyone out there in the wide world had their lucky rabbit's foot at the ready (although as they always say, it obviously wasn't that lucky for the rabbit, after all) or whatever other good luck charm you might have on hand, to ward off evil spirits adding their mischief to an already unlucky day, and once again, thanks so very much not. And not to be an alarmist, but I feel it's only fair to point out that we already have another month starting on a Sunday to look forward to, this time in July, although fortunately that will be the last one for this year. On the other hand, in the immortal words of "Born Under a Bad Sign," Albert King's old blues classic "If I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't any luck at all." Rim shot, please!     Well, you know that the days are really flying by, when not only has the Easter Bunny long since come and gone, but even the Greek Orthodox Easter Bunny has hopped in and out, and skipped off into the Aegean sunset besides. At least in the local area, it seems to have finally stopped snowing (thank heaven!) at long last, but the weather is still so chilly and unpredictable, you really don't know what to expect next. However it must be said that it hasn't slowed down the spring flowers, putting on a show all over town, from the tiniest garden specimens and flowering shrubs, all the way up to the welcome sight of blooming ornamental trees in every imaginable shade of the rainbow. One of the true joys of springtime in the Northeast is the riotous explosion of color bursting forth from bare ground, often right through the snow that hasn't even melted yet. After a difficult winter, it's the eternal optimism of spring flowers that gives us hope to believe in better days ahead. Of course, I should also mention that they're already playing college football games on television now, of all things, for anyone who can't wait for the football season to start again in the fall - although frankly, like back-to-school supplies in June, and Christmas decorations in September, this "seasonal creep" is not a concept that I can whole-heartedly get behind. In traffic court, this is what we call "a moving violation."     In other sports news, baseball got underway in earnest just a handful of weeks ago, and it's always interesting to see the early standings, so wildly unrepresentative of what the actual season will shape up like. In Boston, the Red Sox lost their opener, but then went on to reel off 8 wins in a row after that, getting an early jump on running away with the AL East, while the Astros leaped out to an 8-2 start in the West. On the junior side of things, the surprising Metsies opened up 7-1 in the NL East, with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Arizona Diamondbacks going 7-2 in their respective divisions. One unexpected aspect of the young season has been the variety of bench-clearing brawls so far, in a sport not ordinarily known for its fisticuffs, and not even among teams necessarily famous for their bitter rivalries, decades upon decades in the making. These tussles have also been marked by plenty of ejections, fines, and suspensions, so it's not like the umpires have been turning a blind eye to the situation, or taking a "boys-will-be-boys" attitude about it. Personally, it seems awfully early in the season for stuff like that, and while there's a whole lot of games still left to play, hopefully they're got all of this out of their system early in the year. Play ball!     Speaking of getting things out of their system, I was at church on Sunday after the prayers wrapped up, and it came time to pass the peace, as they do nowadays. I found myself behind the pastor, who was greeting one of our dear elderly church basement ladies, who is not only a stalwart of the congregation, but with diaconal training under her belt, is legitimately recognized as a deaconess of the faith. In the middle of shaking hands, they decided that a kiss of peace would be more appropriate, so they reached for each other over the pew in between them, and clinched together in what should have been a heart-warming display of Christian harmony. Unfortunately for me, or anyone else in these 2 pews, it utterly stymied our most valiant efforts to move past them, and their kiss of peace soon became more of a blockade of peace than anyone would have thought possible. Normally, this is where I would be saying something like, "Of course, everyone knows that I'm much too polite to ..... " but that turned out to be not the case at all, under the circumstances. Immobilized as I was, behind the smooching pair, I have to admit that I let loose a rather ill-mannered cough, and snapped, "Get a room!" They laughed. Let's face it, in traffic court, this is what we call "a non-moving violation." Elle