When we woke up this morning it was sixty degrees (Fahrenheit) and the stone steps were warm under my bare feet. The second day of Spring had indeed showed up to say “How y’all?” and I responded, “Mighty fine. Thanks for coming by!” Since yesterday was the first day of spring (according to the meteorologists’ scripture) I figured it was just Ma Nature making herself at home bright and early.

Then the Baron went to church where there are real people who watch the weather on TV and even as they told him the details of the Karma Dude’s upcoming joke, he noticed the sky begin to cloud over…

The sun was hidden by this:

Regional Radar

I didn’t put the image up because it’s better to see it in full bruising color in order to appreciate the varieties in this comic tragedy. It’s a comedy if you stay home where it’s warm. It’s a tragedy if you ignore the warnings and venture out on the glassy roads.

Here are the dramatis personae in this mass:

Green is for rain.
Yellow is heavier rain (my guess is there’ll be increasing amounts of yellow as that mass moves closer).
Pink is ice.
Snow is blue and/or white.

On the lower left of that image you’ll see the button for animating the map. Click that and watch the iceman head our way. He will be pushing that green mass with its mixture of heavier yellow rain. Lots of rain, but not England-type floods, thankyouverymuch. And there don’t seem to be any red spots, indicating the possibility of tornadoes. Maybe it’s just not that kind of storm.

Here’s the place where it may affect y’all. The cold air pushing that mass toward us will likely turn our green world pink. As it gets nearer to Schloss Bodissey the temperature will continue to droop…err…drop. And so will the tree branches droop and drop, burdened as they are likely to be with ice. Up in the mountains those tin cans holding the wires together will rattle loudly. But who knows, they may hold on and all will be well.

If that’s the case we’ll be here with you…since it all depends on March, and we know by now she’s a most unstable kind of girl. The glass is up one minute, down the next and you can hear her howling outside that she can hold her liquor. Sure she can.

If Gates of Vienna is all lit up but it looks like no one is home, you’ll know the iceman arrived and dumped his sack o’ slush. We’ll get out the candles (a menorah works well) and fire up the gas cooker. We’ll put some ham hocks on simmer with a bay leaf, a splash of vinegar and some coriander seeds (an old trick for making hock taste more like ham).

Maybe if Vlad is awake he can come by and let the comments in to warm up. He knows our rules. On the other hand, with his ADD (similar to mine), maybe not…I’ll ask.