March Springness . . .

Here it is the very first day of spring, 2016 and it is already still raining. All day so far, light and constant. It is hard to juggle the times for Dino to run outside for his "business trips" so he gets minimal moisture exposure. But the day has brought about a sense of a different time of the year.

We've pretty much gotten used to the time-change now though it still brings moments of comparing time from two weeks ago to present time. The dogwood tree outback exploded in the last few days. It is covered with popcorn-like white blossoms.

Today, being Sunday, there is a natural break-in-the-action for us. In prior years this day would give us the break from career related stress to getting away from it for a few. Now, it mostly means no doctor visits nor many phone calls for a change.

And we had another taste of spring by watching a pre-season baseball game.

The Giants, currently our team of interest, walked all over the Padres 15 - 6 in a fun to watch slugfest.

Last season we watched almost every one of the Giants games, maybe not the whole game but at least part of every game -- it depended on how the game was going.

If the pattern holds true the Giants have won the World Series in alternating years for the last few years and this IS the alternating year -- we'll see.

And if you are caught-up in the "other" games
to the left are the brackets that are in play.

Millions of folks have made their selections that will all come to a close in early April

A "National Champion" will be decided. I wonder how long I will retain the name of that team . . .

I'm scratching my head to recall last year's.

You want more brackets? How about
the ones to the right.

First there is the Family Tree Bracket -- my particular favorite.

Then there is the "income Tax Bracket" my particular not-favorite one.

                                                                                And lastly there is the "political brackets" which are monopolizing most of the news these days.

There are just over 230 days until the election so the time will go fast and furious. It is hard to witness how the campaigning is going -- or not going as the case may be.

Where have I spent most of my time this week -- among the branches of the Bumgardners, the Hoopes, the Butlers and the Riders.

These families all tend to have a very large number of offspring as did most of the 19th century families. Very few had families the size of today's families, two or so.    

I'm continuing to work from the B(a)umgardner book, and as I enter names into Ancestry the hint or leaf population explodes -- just like their ads say.  

I have a long long way to go and I'll never be done.

                                                                                                              And, just what is currently on our nightstand -- "boys in the trees" by Carly Simon.

We saw Carly interviewed on one of the Late Night Shows (we record all three of the majors) and we knew that her book would be interesting to read.

And it is! We enjoy learning about the lives of living folks and how they grew up.

We are just part way into the book, and we find the style enjoyable and also the revelations.

For some reason I had not ever connected Carly with her father being half of the "Simon & Schuster" publishing name, but she is.


          
Actually the sun just peeked out a bit and the day takes on a different feeling.  But we planned a great "rainy-day" dinner menu and we'll stick with it, rain or shine.

Broccoli slaw, slow cooked pulled-pork, roasted new potatoes & fresh snap peas. Always something to look forward to on a rainy, at the moment, sunny Sunday.   That is a bit of our week.

See you all "in a few"!