Opening Day!

 

Opening day

 ---A field of dreams, dreams of grass and a white ball in a cloudless blue sky.

It's a  beautiful day for baseball.  

In reality, the weather on opening day may be overcast, maybe rain or even snow, winter parkas and wind chills. But that doesn't matter.   It's baseball  season again.

 What about March Madness? What about hockey and basketball?  Those are winter games.

Not today.  Today is Opening Day of the 2024 Major League Baseball season. Is it true what they say, that life begins on Opening Day?

And today, the  Chicago White Sox will be playing their home opener against the Detroit Tigers at Guaranteed Rate Field.  The  first pitch is set for 3:10 p.m. CDT.

 According to AccuWeather, it will be mostly sunny and 51 degrees, wind WSW 10 mph. 

Today everything begins again.

Play Ball!

 

Spring Equinox

 

 

 

 

The spring equinox will be on  March 19 at 10:06 pm in Chicago.  This marks the beginning of astronomical spring. Do you feel the March wind in your hair?  It could be raw and wintry, or maybe balmy and breezy...

Put the hats and scarves away. Open the windows!   No, maybe not today.

What is the  March Equinox anyway?  Here's how EarthSky explains it---

 

 The March equinox – aka the vernal equinox – marks the sun’s crossing above Earth’s equator, moving from south to north. Earth’s tilt on its axis is what causes this northward shift of the sun’s path across our sky at this time of year. Earth’s tilt is now bringing spring and summer to the Northern Hemisphere. At the same time, the March equinox marks the beginning of autumn – and a shift toward winter – in the Southern Hemisphere.

You can read more about the equinox from EarthSky here.  

Our ancestors celebrated spring, the signs of new green and the increasing light of our days.  There will  be gatherings at Stonehenge, and other ancient sites.

 In Chicago, they dyed the river green on March 16 for St.  Patrick's Day, and people were out wearing green.  

And on the spring equinox there will be photographers taking photos of the rising and setting of the sun between the tall buildings along the East-West grid of the streets of Chicago---a sight they call Chicagohenge. 

Here are some breathtaking photos of Chicagohenge from Spring 2022.  Happy Spring! 

The Moods of March

Oh yes, March is a moody month--days of sun, days of overcast gray...A chill in the shade, and warmer in the sun. A cold front coming through,  bringing rain and maybe even snow.  The next day, a sweet warm breeze. 

 

And there is no blue quite like that March blue sky--the clarity!  The light on the new green leaves.

After the time shift, there is more light in the evenings, now. Sunsets after 7 pm.   And dark at 6am, and the streetlights are still on.  But we are counting down the days to the equinox on March 19---astronomical spring!  

 

March is tulips and  daffodils.

March is primary voting and Saint Patrick's Day parade! 

March is the Green Chicago river for Saint Patrick's Day

March is  Spring and Chicagohenge.

March is buds on the branches, and spring training baseball!  

The warmer than average February is also bringing us an early spring, which also means pothole repair season, construction season, and allergy season.

And 4 years ago today on March 11 2020, The World Health Organization declared a pandemic emergency with COVID-19.  Do you remember how everything changed?  Remember who was President then. Remember how many people died. Remember the lock downs, the fear and uncertainty.  

 

We have learned a lot, and things have changed since then, but the plague is still with us.  Now is the time to get the updated vaccine.  Or a booster, if you got the updated vaccine last fall.

 

March is also the start of  severe weather season---storms and even tornadoes---and we could still get snow, even  in April! 

 

As they say, March is many weathers....