Will This Winter Ever End??

[dawn_felagund]

This morning, I woke up and there was snow on the ground. Snow! In April! In Maryland! Yes, I know we live in north-north Maryland now but still. Snow in April is ridiculous. Hasn't it ever heard the saying that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb? What the hell kind of lamb is this? A Monty Python killer lamb??

I know I'm not old enough to tell uphill-both-ways stories yet, but I don't ever remember snow in April.

This has been the longest winter that I can recall. It started the first week of November. I remember this well because our Halloween party was on 1 November, and we had a lot of people attending for our small house, so I wished very hard for a day warm and pleasant enough that many of them would want to go outside ... and I got it. 1 November was gorgeous! And, a few days later, temperatures dropped precipitously, and I felt as though I'd paid for that one perfect day. And it stayed cold and miserable, so much that Bobby and I were both expecting a white Thanksgiving. (Which we didn't get because, despite winter hanging around for five months, we had a record low snowfall. Double boo!)

I'm ready for winter to be done and over! I miss baring my arms in public and my legs below the knee! I really needed a long skirt and boots today, but I refuse to wear boots in April. So my legs were cold. Oh flippin' well.

(angelica_ramses, has the miserable summer stuck so adamantly in your part of the world as miserable winter has here? I do hope not!)

On a positive note, it is Bobby's birthday today. The old man is 28. Because we are planning a trip to Ireland this summer, he has refused all birthday gifts from me to save for the trip. We did, however, have an excellent dinner at the Thai restaurant in Westminster. And I'm off for the rest of the week, and Bobby is on Spring Break, so we can stay up together until the small hours of the morning. We're hoping for weather pleasant enough tomorrow to inaugurate the hiking season.

Comments

[surgicalsteel.livejournal.com]

Oooo, one thing off the top of my head - even if neither one of you like beer, do the Guinness brewery tour. It's a self guided tour through a variety of exhibits that finishes in a bar on the top floor of the building. It's only like 8 stories, but there aren't many buildings in Dublin taller than that - and it's ceiling to floor glass all around, so you can either enjoy your complimentary pint or order something else from the bar and have your drink and enjoy the best views of Dublin city imaginable.

Oh, and the GPO (general post office) - it's where the rebel leaders holed up during the 1916 Uprising that eventually led to Irish independence. You can still see bullet holes if you look - and my mother-in-law swears that it's lucky to buy lottery tickets there. ;)

[dawn_felagund]

The Guinness tour is top of the list! :D My husband and I both love Guinness (I don't drink light-colored beer because it tastes weird to me, though my husband was slower in coming into the fold; only once we joined the SCA did he learn to appreciate beers that weren't yellow and American! >:^P). We didn't have the GPO on this list yet, but that definitely sounds like it'd be right up our alley. We're both history buffs!

[surgicalsteel.livejournal.com]

Kilmainham Jail is where they held the rebel leaders and executed them after the uprising, so you'd probably enjoy that - the Book of Kells at Trinity College would likely be right up your alley, too.

I keep trying to talk my husband into doing a literary pub crawl, too - they have guided tours where they'll take you to famous writers' favorite watering holes, and I've always sort of wanted to see the pubs where Yeats and Joyce (among others) drank and wrote. :)