But...

...it's only September!

Winter isn't supposed to be here!

Oh, not quite here, in the swamps.  Not yet.  Sometimes we still wear shorts for Thanksgiving.

Up north, though, in Wisconsin and parts of the Rockies, there was snow yesterday!  Snow!  In September!

It's way too early.  While i'm no fan of excessive heat, cold causes me a lot of pain, and i don't even want to begin to think about what it might mean that they are getting snow so early.

So i'll try to think of something else, like my upcoming trip.  It's getting close to the time of year when i take off and get away for a few days to be with friends, my yearly sanity retreat.

This year we are meeting in Kentucky, a shorter drive than to New York last year.  We will be between Lexington and Louisville, and yes, i will bring cast iron and cook gumbo.  Have Grandma M's cast iron, will travel.

Yes, i bring my own coffee, as well as spices and some other ingredients as well.

Only 2 1/2 weeks, so i'd best start making the lists for the family.  Things like what meals to cook on which days and who has garbage duty.  Also, i need to arrange for Little Girl's transportation to and from school, and i've already cleared it with Miss W that Bigger Girl and Little Girl will do the Friday night shelter duty while i'm gone.

There, thinking about that got my mind off of the impending winter of my discontent.  Keep focusing, i'll keep telling myself.  Keep focusing, and start buying extra spices and coffee.  Gifts, of course, i have to bring enough to share.




Today is:

Aloha Festivals Keiki Ho'olaule'a -- Oahu, Hawai'i, US (preserving Hawai'ian culture, with games, keiki activities, performances, and more)

Banana Festival - An A-peeling Celebration -- Fulton, KY & South Fulton, TN, US (the fun starts tonight with The Banana Ball and continues through next Saturday)

Big Mac Shoreline Fall Scenic Bike Tour & Ride Across The Mackinac Bridge -- Mackinaw City, MI, US (a one-of-a-kind bike tour; through tomorrow)

Defy Superstition Day -- go walk under that ladder!

Dia de los Ninos Heroes -- Mexico

Eleven Days of Global Unity -- Day 3, Environment (sponsored by We, the World)

Epulum Iovis and Lectisternia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (festival for Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva

Festival of Lighting the Fires of Neith -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Flax Scutching Festival -- Stahlstown, PA, US (through tomorrow; demonstrations of the tradition of making linen out of flax)

Fortune Cookie Day -- you might need one after that ladder stunt

Hollerin' Heritage Festival -- Spivey's Corner, NC, US (with the National Hollerin' Contest, reviving the the "almost lost" art of Hollerin', and a fun filled day of music, food, antique farm equipment, and more)

Independence Day -- Venda (recognized within South Africa only)

International Chocolate Day -- as declared by the National Confectioners Association

International Drive Your Studebaker Day -- an official event of the Studebaker Drivers Club Inc. (wish i could!)

On the Waterfront Swap Meet and Car Show -- St. Ignace, MI, US (with a car show, truck show, toy show, and swap meet, there's something for everyone! through tomorrow)

National Celiac Awareness Day -- US

National Peanut Day

Positive Thinking Day -- think positively that nothing bad will happen because of that ladder!

Programmers Day -- Russia, and among programmers around the world (on the 256th day of the year)
     some sites call this "Thank a Programmer Day"

Roald Dahl Day -- it's his birth anniversary, and this year marks the 51st anniversary of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!

Runic Half Month Ken begins (illumination)

Snack-A-Pickle Time

St. John Chrysostom's Day (Patron of education, epileptics, lecturers, orators, preachers; Constantinople)


Birthdays Today:

Ben Savage, 1980
Fiona Apple, 1977
Stella McCartney, 1977
Tavis Smiley, 1964
Jean Smart, 1959
Nell Carter, 1948
Jacqueline Bisset, 1944
Peter Cetera, 1944
Bela Karolyi, 1942
David Clayton-Thomas, 1941
Fred Silverman, 1937
Richard Kiel, 1939
Judith "Miss Manners" Martin, 1938
Robert Indiana, 1928
Mel Torme, 1925
Yma Sumac, 1922
Roald Dahl, 1916
Bill Monroe, 1911
Claudette Colbert, 1903
Sherwood Anderson, 1876
John J. Pershing, 1860
Milton Hershey, 1857
Walter Reed, 1851
Clara Schumann, 1819
Cesare Borgia, 1475


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Law & Order"(TV), 1990
"Soap"(TV), 1977
"The Muppet Show"(TV)1976
"The Rockford Files"(TV)1974
"Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?"(TV)1969
"Yesterday"(Beatles' single release), 1965
"Canticum Sacrum ad Honorem Sancti Marci Nominis/Canticle to Honor the Name of Saint Mark"(Stravinsky orchestral piece), 1956


Today in History:

The temple of Jupiter on Rome's Capitoline Hill is dedicated on the ides of September, BC509
Building begins on Hadrian's Wall, 122
St. Francis of Assisi receives stigmata, 1224
Michelangelo begins work on his statue of David, 1503
Henry Hudson reached the river that would later be named after him, 1609
NYC becomes the first capital of the US, 1788
US Government takes out its first loan from NYC banks, 1789
Six teenage military cadets known as Niños Héroes die defending Chapultepec Castle in the Battle of Chapultepec, 1847
Vermont railroad worker Phineas Gage incredibly survives a 3-foot-plus iron rod being driven through his head; the reported effects on his behavior and personality stimulate thinking about the nature of the brain and its functions, 1848
Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film, 1898
Lusitania completes her maiden voyage, arriving in NYC, 1907
The temperature (in the shade) at Al 'Aziziyah, Libya reaches a world record 57.8*C (136.04*F), 1922
Elizabeth McCombs is the first woman elected to the New Zealand Parliament, 1933
Chiang Kai-shek elected president of the Republic of China, 1943
IBM introduces the first computer disk storage unit, the RAMAC 305, 1956
Hurricane Gilbert is the strongest recorded hurricane, based on barometric pressure, in the Western Hemisphere, 1988*
Largest anti-Apartheid march in South Africa, led by Desmond Tutu, 1989
The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted, 2007
Hurricane Ike makes landfall, damaging Galveston Island, Houston, and surrounding area, 2007
Jan van Eyck is credited as the painter of 'The three mary's at the tomb' a painting from the 1430's held in a Rotterdam museum, 2012


*Replaced by Hurricane Wilma in 2005