March 1st – the time when we here in the Great White North kid ourselves into thinking we see a light at the end of the tunnel of winter that isn’t an oncoming snowplow. Of course deep down we know better, which is to say we don’t know anything at all. It’s not unheard of for it to be warm and sunny in March. Or it could (more likely) be cold, snowy and crappy. What the krauts call Scheißwetter (and they know their shitty weather over there). There’s a lot of rain and gray skies on both sides in my heritage – it’s no wonder I feel so at home here in Upstate NY and can’t figure why outsiders seem to think it sucks so bad (Syracuse – come for the lousy weather, stay for the abject poverty and urban decay!).

This year, though, hasn’t been bad. I mean, sure, we’ve had over 8.5 feet of snow (so far), but that’s only three inches or so more than usual. If we’re not setting any records, then we’re not struggling. And really when we’ve gotten snow it’s mostly melted pretty fast – the sump pumps have been working overtime this year.

Last Thursday and Friday we were up into the 70s (I was walking around in shirt sleeves, which if you live where it’s warm most of the year you can’t fully appreciate). Sure, it got shitty for the weekend and snowed, but today it’s supposed to get into the mid 60s (and turn to shit for the weekend once again, with temps down to the lower teens). So, you know, we take what we can get. And we know no matter how bad things get, they can’t last more than another month or two.

If only we could say the same thing about our disgrace of a president, whose administration will be casting a shadow over the country (if not the world) for a long time to come, I think. If the Russian Bear sees his shadow next Tuesday, it’s another 8 years of Drumpf.

On the bright side, from what I understand he addressed Congress last night, and was very presidential. So that’s good.

I saw that he said “Nobody knew health care could be so complicated.”

I liken that to Dubya and his posse declaring that nobody could have know that Osama bin Laden was determined to attack the United States.

Which, come to think of it, should give us all one more thing to think about while Dumbass is running the show.

But, hey, it’s almost spring, so that’s cool.