Is it really going to be that bad?

This past Monday night, we got a text message saying school was being cancelled for Tuesday because of the expected severe weather.  Yes, aren't we nice and modern!

Tuesday morning, i got up and went to my cleaning job at Ms. V's as usual on the fourth Tuesday of each month.  (She wants twice a month, so it's the second and fourth Tuesdays.)  As i left to head for the bakery for my afternoon shift, i got a text from the owner.  They were cancelling all afternoon shifts and closing early, have a great afternoon off.

It was a great opportunity to get all of the litter boxes completely changed out, but i really didn't want a day off like that, not because the weather people were panicking us again.

That seems to be the big thing now.  A storm blows in, and there is panic.  Not a hurricane storm, but a regular thunderstorm just like we used to have when we were kids.  The kind where the lights might go out, but probably not.  The kind where you might get hail, but probably won't.  The kind that can spawn tornadoes, but generally doesn't, at least not where we live.

Yes, parts of Pensacola, near where we vacation each year, got pounded.  Yes, the tornadoes that did form to the south of us headed straight to the trailer parks and did a great job of turning them into matchsticks.

Does it mean that every storm has to by hyped into being the storm of the century, complete with Weather Channel celebrities coming to town?  Especially since most of us just got rain, and some lightning and a bit of wind.  Nothing we aren't used to, though.

Weather people, yes, there will be storms.  Sometimes they will be severe.  Please stop crying wolf about every storm, or we will quit listening, and that would be a shame when a big one really does come along.

Today is:

Charro Days Fiesta -- Brownsville, TX, US and Matamoros, Mexico (Two Nations - Twin Cultures, the sister cities put on a beautiful celebration of the charro horsemen of Mexico, with dances, parades, and a carnival; through Mar. 6)

Dairokuten-no-Hadaka Matsuri -- Chiba, Japan (around this date; one of Japan's "naked" festivals, as participants wear only a loincloth as they wrestle in the cold, wet mud, bringing luck to the community as they run through the crowds smearing the lucky mud on the onlookers)

Dance of the Secret Places -- Fairy Calendar

Dag van de Revolutie -- Suriname (Day of Liberation and Innovation)

Februaristaking -- Netherlands (commemoration of a strike against the Nazis)

Festival of Ptah -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day -- some student programs at universities are set for this weekend, as encouraged during National Engineers Week 

Kitano Baika-sai (Plum Blossom Festival) -- Kitano Tenman-gu Shrine, Kyoto, Japan

Lesser Eleusinian Mysteries -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate)

Let's All Eat Right Day -- in honor of the birth of Adelle Davis in 1904, an early pioneer in good nutrition

Lost Dutchman Days -- Apache Junction, AZ, US (through Sunday; celebration of the legend of the Superstition Mountains and the Lost Dutchman Mine)

National Chili Day -- www.nationalchiliday.com

National Chocolate Covered Peanuts Day -- some sites say any nuts will do, some specify peanuts; take your pick

National Clam Chowder Day -- not to be confused with New England Clam Chowder Day, back in January

National Day -- Kuwait

Newport Seafood and Wine Festival -- Newport, OR, US (featuring seafood and wine from Oregon, Washington, California, and Idaho; through Sunday)

People's Revolution Day/People Power Day -- Philippines

Pistol Patent Day -- Samuel Colt received US Patent #138 for the first pistol on this day in 1836

Quiet Day -- can't find the history behind this one, but mommy wants one!

St. Walburga's Day (Patron of boatmen/mariners/sailors/watermen, harvests; Antwerp, Belgium; Eichstätt, Germany; Gronigen, Netherlands; Oudenarde, Belgium; Plymouth, England; Zutphen, Netherlands; against coughs, dog bites, famine, hydrophobia/rabies, mad dogs, plague, storms)

Soviet Occupation Day -- Georgia


Birthdays Today:

Josh Wolff, 1977
Chelsea Handler,1975
Sean Astin, 1971
Tea Leoni, 1966
Carrot Top, 1965
Lee Evans, 1964
Neil Jrdan, 1950
Ric Flair, 1949
Karen Grassle, 1944
George Harrison, 1943
Diane Baker, 1938
Tom Courtenay, 1937
Bob Schieffer, 1937
Sally Jessy Raphael, 1935
"Texas Rose" Bascom, 1922
Bobby Riggs, 1918
Anthony Burgess, 1917
Jim Backus, 1913
Millicent Hammond Fenwick, 1910
Adelle Davis, 1904
Zeppo Marx, 1901
Meher Baba, 1894
Enrico Caruso, 1873
Charles Lang Freer, 1856
Pierre Auguste Renoir, 1841
Xuande, Emperor of China, 1398


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"A Little Night Music"(Musical), 1973
"Toys in the Attic"(Play), 1960
"Wonderful Town"(Musical), 1953
"Your Show of Shows"(TV), 1950
"Natoma"(Herbert Opera), 1911
"Riders to the Sea"(Play), 1904
"Hernani"(Victor Hugo Play), 1830


Today in History:

The First Bank of the United States is chartered, 1791
The German Midiatisation is enacted, taking over 1,000 German sovereign states into about 40 larger entities, 1803
Samuel Colt patents the first revolving barrel multishot firearm, 1836
The first US electric printing press is patented by Thomas Davenport, 1837
Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, is sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in the U.S. Congress, 1870
The US Steel Corp. is organized under J P Morgan, 1901
The Stanley Cup: Ottawa Silver 7 sweep Toronto Marlboroughs in 2 games, 1904
Marie-Adélaïde, the eldest of six daughters of Guillaume IV, becomes the first reigning Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, 1912
Oregon places a 1 cent per U.S. gallon tax on gasoline, becoming the first U.S. state to levy a gasoline tax, 1919
Diplomatic relations between Japan and the Soviet Union are established, 1925
Glacier Bay National Monument (now Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve) is established in Alaska, 1925
Francisco Franco becomes General of Spain, 1926
Charles Jenkins Laboratories of Washington, D.C. becomes the first holder of a television license from the Federal Radio Commission, 1928
The USS Ranger is launched. It is the first US Navy ship to be built solely as an aircraft carrier, 1933
In occupied Amsterdam, a general strike is declared in response to increasing anti-Jewish measures instituted by the Nazis, 1941
The first Pan American Games are held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1951
Cassius Clay defeats Sonny Liston, 1964
The first unit of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, the first commercial nuclear power station in Canada, goes online, 1971
President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines flees the nation after 20 years of rule; Corazon Aquino becomes the first Filipino woman president, 1986
In the Cave of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron, Baruch Goldstein opens fire with an automatic rifle, killing 29 Palestinian worshippers and injuring 125 more, 1994
In the Irish general election, the Fianna Fáil-led government suffered the worst defeat of a sitting government since the formation of the Irish state, 2011