Transitions * . . .

* Not the eye glasses, the seasons . . .

April 7

Indoors or out, no one relaxes; In March, that month of wind and taxes; The wind will presently disappear; The taxes last us all the year. ~ Ogden Nash

ONCE UPON A TIME, in the days of yore before COVID and kitties, the Super and I would inflict ourselves upon friends and relatives in Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California for the last two weeks of March and the first week of April. It’s not that I want to escape winter – I think it’s the most beautiful season of the year – but for these three weeks local climate goes through “the change.” We leave the cold, dank, dirty snow, ice-covered lakes after the winter sports state tournaments and often returned to green grass and open water. It was the perfect segue. For the last three years, however, we have had to remain at home. So, what happens here . . .

The first day of spring was once the time for taking the young virgins into the fields, there in dalliance to set an example in fertility for nature to follow. Now we just set the clocks an hour ahead and change the oil in the crankcase. ~ E. B. White

In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours. ~ Mark Twain

March 6

In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this. ~ Terry Pratchett

[The Super got tired of my complaining about my aged smart phone’s inability to take good pictures, so she bought me a new one. There are times when I want to take photos absent the inconvenience of schlepping along the real camera. Here are my first photos with the new phone of the babies rising to great heights in the house . . . ]

A cat will do what it wants when it wants, and there’s not a thing you can do about it. ~ Frank Perkins

March 9

In those days, though, the spring always came finally but it was frightening that it had nearly failed. ~ Ernest Hemingway

[Again with the new phone camera of the Wednesday Night Fine Dining group at The Lure . . . ]

[This group has been know to, on occasion, have a good time. Karin and Dave, on the left, had recently returned from their two-month getaway to Palm Desert . . . ]

[The rest of us stayed all winter to make sure the snow had company . . . ]

March 13

The expression “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” actually isn’t usually true for human beings. It is for bacteria, however. ~  Michael Lewis

[We hosted the non-fiction book club. No photos were taken due to the large number of members in the witness protection program . . . ]

March 17, St. Paddy’s Day

Early spring is the time for vigorous change, a preparation for the heat-driven oppression that is to come. ~ Henry Rollins

[Senior College – Global Labor Markers w/ Alfred Marcus, U of M . . . ]

Everybody is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, but if your name is Eisenhower, you’ve got to wear something green to show it. ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

[After college it was off to Longtrees Woodfire Grill for a St. Patrick’s Day special of corned beef and cabbage . . . of course! What we didn’t know was an old family friend, Jason Hines, had been back in Alex for two years and was working at Longtrees . . . ]

March 20

You can not look at a sleeping cat and feel tense. ~ Jane Pauley

March 21

Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party!’ ~ Robin Williams

Why should society feel responsible only for the education of children, and not for the education of all adults of every age? ~ Erich Fromm

[It was Community Education movie night at the Grand Arbor theater . . . ]

[It was my night to host – my movie: “The Biggest Little Farm” . . . ]

[The usual masses have gathered, running the range of 25-30 people . . . ]

[After each movie, those who desire go across the hall for a discussion of the movie . . . ]

[After the discussion, we put all the chairs back in place and take a head count of those going to dinner . . . ]

[I think we had seven diners on this night – it can range up to 14 -16 . . . ]

[Autumn, in the background, is the Longtrees Woodfire Grill manager and endures our group showing up every other Monday . . . ]

I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught. ~ Winston Churchill

March 22, Jami’s Birthday

A man has every season while a woman only has the right to spring. ~ Jane Fonda

The older you get the better you get, unless you are a banana. ~ Betty White

I was brought up to respect my elders, so now I don’t have to respect anybody. ~ George Burns

You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely. ~ Ogden Nash

A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman’s birthday but never remembers her age. ~ Robert Frost

Yes, I deserve a spring – I owe nobody nothing. ~ Virginia Woolf

Eventually you reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it. ~ Will Rogers

Life really does begin at forty. Up until then, you are just doing research. ~ Carl G. Jung

Life stands before me like an eternal spring with new and brilliant clothes. ~ Carl Friedrich Gauss

As you get older three things happen. The first is your memory goes, and I can’t remember the other two. ~ Sir Norman Wisdom

[Apres birthday party: Senior College – Forces Driving Inflation in the COVID Era w/ Kelly Hughes, Alexandria College . . . ]

[For a short while it actually appeared as if spring was going to make an appearance . . . ]

March 23

Nouvelle cuisine, roughly translated, means: I can’t believe I paid $96 and I’m still hungry. ~ Mike Kalin

[Another Wednesday night of fine dining at The Lure overlooking still solidly frozen Lake Le Homme Dieu . . . ]

In a restaurant, choose a table near a waiter. ~ Jewish Proverb

[Discussion of things of world import has begun . . . ]

The other night I ate at a real nice family restaurant. Every table had an argument going. ~ George Carlin (George, it’s really . . . )

It’s easier to be faithful to a restaurant than it is to a woman. ~ Federico Fellini

March 24

When you wait for a server in a restaurant, doesn’t that make you the waiter? ~ Unknown

[And once again Thursday Night Club performed at the Garden Bar on a Tuesday . . . ]

There are advantages to being a star, though. You can always get a table in a full restaurant. ~ Ingrid Bergman

Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go to a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight, dinner, soft music, and dancing. She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays. ~ Henry Youngman

[At the next table, Paulette and Ralph were celebrating their 53rd wedding anniversay . . . ]

Never look directly at the sun, instead look at the sunflower. ~ Vera Nazarian

[Paulette is known as Alexandria’s storyteller. Ralph fits into that somewhere . . . ]

March 25

Fear not, get your shot. ~  Abhijit Naskar

[The Super and I got our second booster vaccines. I wore a t-shirt that I thought would be the viral equivalent of brother Chris’s John Prine shirt below . . . ]

I don’t like to see Christmas trees torn down. ~ John Prine

When vaccination programs are successful to the point where the disease is unfamiliar to physicians and public alike, then concerns can arise with real or perceived side effects of a vaccine that affect a very small minority of those vaccinated. Such concerns lead to fewer children being vaccinated and to increasing occurrence of the disease. ~  Peter Parham

Who are you going to believe? Leading authorities on medical science, or 800 memes on your cousin’s Facebook page? ~ Samantha Bee

If only there was a vaccine to protect against breast cancer, we’d be lining up – wouldn’t we? ~ Judy Blume

If everything is God’s will, then so is the invention of the vaccine, just like the seatbelt. ~ Els Borst

There is no vaccine against stupidity. ~ Albert Einstein

A classical Game Theory case. People are not taking vaccines in the hope that everyone else would be vaccinated and they would be safe. ~  Vineet Raj Kapoor

[Feeling super safe with my Tweetie Bird bandage . . . ]

March 26

The public is like a piano. You just have to know what keys to poke. ~ Al Capp

[Elsa Lee, fortunately for us, is a regular entertainer at the winery. These photos were my first headshots with the new phone camera . . . ]

There’s nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself. ~ Johann Sebastian Bach

Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends on how you play it. ~ Tom Lehrer

In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria. ~ Benjamin Franklin

Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever. ~  Aristophanes

I drink to make other people more interesting. ~ Ernest Hemmingway

March 27

Cats are connoisseurs of comfort. ~ James Herriot

Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear that the gardener seems to be only one of the instruments, not the composer. ~ Geoffrey B. Charlesworth

[The third concert of the Central Lakes Symphony Orchestra’s season . . . ]

Pay no attention to what the critics say. A statue has never been erected in honor of a critic. ~ Jean Sibelius

The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between. ~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

At a certain place in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, one might feel that he is floating above the earth in a starry dome. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

People ordinarily don’t think of their orchestras as important as we’d like them to be. People don’t care about their friends and neighbors who sit down to commit excellence three or four times a year, but they will go see the tall bald guy with three names from television. ~ David Ogden Stiers

I can’t stand going out to one more dinner with some Mrs. So-and-So who might leave a million dollars to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra when she dies. ~ Daniel Barenboim

Good conductors know when to let an orchestra lead itself. Ninety percent of what a conductor does comes in the rehearsal – the vision, the structure, the architecture. ~ Joshua Bell

A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd. ~ Max Lucado

March 28

I glanced out the window at the signs of spring. The sky was almost blue, the trees were almost budding, the sun was almost bright. ~ Millard Kaufman

[When a Canada Geese couple are meandering the back yard and neither the Super nor Galahad pay them no mind, spring must be in the air . . . ]

A goose flies by a chart which the Royal Geographical Society could not mend. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

[Said geese couple . . . ]

March 30

The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month. ~ Henry Van Dyke

It is amazing how quickly the kids learn to drive a car, yet are unable to understand the lawn mower, snowblower and vacuum cleaner. ~ Ben Berger

I have a cousin Ernie who buys stuff. He’s got a big snowblower that’s actually the biggest snowblower you can buy, with a remote control, so he doesn’t even have to go outside. He’s got the microwave and a satellite dish, it’s all in one. He cooks and watches at the same time. ~ Louie Anderson

I used to be Snow White, but I drifted. ~ Mae West

Schizophrenia beats dining alone. ~ Oscar Levant

[Why, yes, another Wednesday night dining adventure at The Lure . . . ]

Too many people just eat to consume calories. Try dining for a change. ~ John Walters

March 31

Education is learning what you didn’t even know you didn’t know. ~ Daniel J. Boorstin

[Senior College – The Favorable Economics of Solving the Climate Challenge w/ Jay Coggins, U of M . . . ]

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education. ~ Albert Einstein

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. ~ H. G. Wells

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. ~ Aristotle

Oh stop it, you’re having an affair with your college professor, that jerk that teaches that incredible crap course, Contemporary Crisis in Western Man... ~ Alvy Singer (Woody Allen)

Real education must ultimately be limited to men who insist on knowing, the rest is mere sheep-herding. ~ Ezra Pound

35 million people in the U.S. are hungry or don’t know where their next meal is coming from, and 13 million of them are children. If another country were doing this to our children, we’d be at war. ~ Jeff Bridges

[A tradition in which the Super and I have participated in for some time . . . ]

There are genuinely sufficient resources in the world to ensure that no one, nowhere, at no time, should go hungry. ~ Ed Asner

[In the Common Area of the high school, which we noted at the time is now eight years old. Begin the fund raising now for the next one?]

Food is the moral right of all who are born into this world. ~ Norman Borlaug

A hungry man can’t see right or wrong. He just sees food. ~ Pearl S. Buck

[The students also displayed their art work . . . ]

Hungry people cannot be good at learning or producing anything, except perhaps violence. ~ Pearl Bailey

I am grateful for each and every food bank that helps families in need. No one should ever go hungry. ~ Marlee Matlin

[And played with the Rainbow Strings . . . ]

If you desire peace, cultivate justice, but at the same time cultivate the fields to produce more bread; otherwise there will be no peace. ~ Norman Borlaug

April 1

This is my house and I’ll talk as much as I want to! ~ Stella Kowalski

[A road trip to Stella’s in Battle Lake for an evening with Anthony Miltich . . . ]

[A fish named . . . Stella??]

In springtime, love is carried on the breeze. Watch out for flying passion or kisses whizzing by your head. ~ Emma Racine deFleur

[Pizza, pizza . . . ]

Only become a musician if there is absolutely no other way you can make a living. ~ Kirke Mechem

[Anthony . . . ]

My music is best understood by children and animals. ~ Igor Stravinsky

In order to compose, all you need to do is remember a tune that nobody else has thought of. ~ Robert Schumann

[And the spotlight is on . . . ]

My sole inspiration is a telephone call from a producer. ~ Cole Porter

If a man whistles at you, do not respond. You are a lady, not a dog. ~ Adele

Never look at the trombones, it only encourages them. ~ Richard Strauss

[The requisite artsy-fartsy shot . . . ]

April 3

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. ~ Margaret Atwood

[ . . . and then it happened, all afternoon . . . ]

[Nope, no dirt smell here . . . ]

It’s not Spring Break until somebody dies! ~ Daniel Tosh

I’m not sure why I like cats so much. I mean, they’re really cute obviously. They are both wild and domestic at the same time. ~ Michael Showalter

My girlfriend asked me how long I was going to be gone on this tour. I said, “the whole time”. ~ Steven Wright

I was once walking through the forest alone. A tree fell right in front of me, and I didn’t hear a thing. ~ Steven Wright

. . . the following morning

Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn. ~ Lewis Grizzard

I’m not into working out. My philosophy is no pain, no pain. ~ George Carlin

Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac? ~ George Carlin

I like to reminisce with people I don’t know. ~ Steven Wright

Let the storm rage on. The cold never bothered me anyway. ~ Elsa from Frozen

‘Snow in April is abominable,’ said Anne. ‘Like a slap in the face when you expected a kiss.’ ~ L.M. Montgomery

Is it snowing where you are? All the world that I see from my tower is draped in white and the flakes are coming down as big as pop-corns. ~ Jean Webster

Up Next: Depends on whether or not the snow ever leaves?