What a difference . . .

. . .  a day (or two) makes!

On Saturday morning, I was enjoying refereeing a couple of soccer matches in the warmth of a nice Spring day - low 70sF. Then, in the afternoon I helped with some yard-work at my daughter's house in sunshine and under a temperature of 82F! [28C]

All good things come to pass. On Sunday, I went to a poetry event (more on that later) in the evening and got caught in a deluge. I think I saw a few cats and dogs fall from the sky, saw a couple of toads drowning and heard the rain as it made sounds on the pavement reminiscent of the proverbial cow pi$$ing on a flat rock! You've heard it said that 'April showers bring May flowers', right?  Well, I'm on the look out now for those Pilgrims!

Yesterday afternoon,  I had another high-school soccer match to referee. Unlike Saturday's matches, for this one I had to don my long-sleeved shirt and gloves as we suffered through a shower of snow! The temperature, a few hours later, also reversed itself from that of Saturday's 82F - to a nippy 28F! [minus 2C]

Today, we'll be lucky if we see anything warmer than 49F [9C] so I anticipate that tonight's match will see me clad in that long-sleeved shirt and gloves once again. It's a miserable day anyway; April 15th always is - it is 'tax-filing deadline' day. Got the checks sent off, so I'm good for another 90 days - until the next quarterly filing.

April 15th is also another miserable day in the footballing (soccer) world. This year, today marks the 25th anniversary of the 'Hillsborough Disaster'. In Arsenal's Emirates Stadium today, as with the other Premier League football matches throughout the UK played this past weekend, there were tributes and "a minute's silence" for the lives of the 96 Liverpool fans lost that day. The tragedy heralded the elimination of the 'terraces' where spectators stood throughout the duration of the match) and the compulsory installation of the (seemingly misnamed) 'Stands' - where all spectators were required to be seated - and consequent significant reduction in the number of spectators able to gain admittance.

Not to dwell on the morbid, but it would not be apt to let the day pass without a mention that this day (April 15th, 2014) is also the 1-year anniversary of that heinous and cowardly act at the Boston Marathon.

I was under the misapprehension that April 15th was also the date when the hummingbirds return to St Louis. I just discovered that date is April 25th - so I will hold off a little longer before blogging about our feathered friends who have not yet learned the words!

It is still a little chilly here yet anyway. So, roll on Wednesday (16th) - at least the sun is supposed to shine again - and warm us up to 60F [16C] - and it promises to be a bit more of an enjoyable day - it will be my birthday; 'Happy 71st' to me!  Hmmm!