the five-month winter

Turns out April Fool’s Day really tricked us this time around. When Jude and I woke up April 2nd, there was 7.5 cm (3 inches) of snow blanketing the farm. It has since yielded to rain, but temperatures are well below average. So, since we got our first snow of the season last November 6th, I have reasoned that we’re about to start our sixth month of winter.

There’s hope, of course, given that humans don’t always reason particularly well. It’s been raining all day. The snowdrops and crocuses (cocri?) are blooming. The fir trees, being evergreens, are verdant. The alder and maple trees aren’t budding yet, but you can sense that they’re thinking about it. And in the increasingly unlikely event that we get a big dump of the flaky stuff, we now have a snow mobile at the ready.

I can’t complain too much. We really need an all-day soak. Last month was the second driest March we’ve had since I started keeping precipitation records in 2008.

I’ve already started one of my spring projects: tearing down a cedar shed near the creek that gives us our domestic water and micro-hydro fuel. It will be replaced by a dump-truck load of sand. I’m making a beach to honour my Marine friend Eddie, who didn’t make it back from Vietnam.

I’m using my indoor time to witness the absolutely breathtaking swath of history we’re in. Watching Trump’s sort-of perp walk after his arraignment was astounding. His usual scowl wasn’t convincing. His posture lacked the usual swagger. And he didn’t speak.

Let that sink in: Aging Orange in a public setting with nothing to say.

His supporters were vastly outnumbered by counter protesters and media types. Marj T. Greene, bless her heart, could only blow hard for a few minutes before retreating to her car. George Santos breezed through the crowd just long enough to remind us that elections have consequences. Jim Jordan, the third of these three stooges, didn’t show. He was busy bitching about obstruction of justice. I guess that, to give us an example of such, he’s launching an investigation of Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg.

A lot of pundits complained that this quandary is merely a mistimed kerfuffle compared to 45’s other legal woes. Fear not. Except for his usual stalling tactics, nothing much is going to happen with that until December. The Georgia probe and E. Jean Carroll case are coming along quite nicely, thank you. And the Mar-a-Lago docs/J6 case will be rearing its beautiful head very soon. It gets worse for Trump most every day. When Jack Smith’s Special Counsel concludes, he won’t be dropping the hammer, it will be more like dropping Home Depot, Inc.