New Year, Ides of March, St. Patrick’s Day

This was meant to be a New Year posting, but somehow the year got away from me, so it is a combination New Year, Ides of March, St. Patrick’s Day post.
One of the items that was going to be in my New Year post was my intention to post to Fourthscore every week. Well, we are 20% through the new year (75 of 366 days) and this is my first post. I will try to be better going forward.
Seventy-five days has put a very different spin on the year, so far. Our presidential candidates look different, our economy looks different, and a little thing (a teeny, tiny thing) known as COVID-19 has taken the world by storm. There are a few different views on whether we are overreacting or burying our heads in the proverbial sand, but either way, life as usual is being disrupted for some unknown period.
I thought I would be at a writers’ conference in San Diego this weekend, nope. Supposed to go to a wedding in Hawaii in April, maybe. Big Model A convention in Texas in June, cancelled.
One thing for sure, I can’t say I don’t have time to read, write, blog, sleep, etc. That is all I really can do. (Someone suggested deep cleaning my house, but I am ignoring that advice.)
I also have a new job! Starting in May I will be working for the US Census, barring that being shut down too. For a whopping $18/hr. and mileage I will be wandering the backroads of El Dorado County asking personal questions of total strangers. I originally signed up for this because it sounded kind of fun and an opportunity for new experiences.
Most of us have heard the warning “Beware the Ides of March” from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, but for clarification I have looked it up: Ides: In the ancient Roman calendar, a day falling roughly in the middle of each month. So, there are ides in every month, not just in March. Notably the Ides of March was a deadline for settling debts (hear that, Donald?). Kind of their version of Tax Day.
And poor old St. Patrick! Since he was never canonized by a Pope (they didn’t do that back then), some people don’t think he is a “real” saint. That doesn’t keep us from eating corned beef and cabbage, drinking green beer, and having big parades (except for this year when all the parades have all been cancelled, you can still drink the beer). BTW the Irish did not eat corned beef until they came to the United States and found that beef was more readily available and cheaper than the pork they were used to eating. I tell you, sometimes the internet is a curse!
I hope you keep reading my posts, share them with your friends, and sign up for my newsletter, which is another resolution of mine. Feel free to comment (it will be a pleasant diversion to see a pertinent comment mixed into the Cialis and “hot Russian women” ads I usually see).
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