So in this vein of unusualness, and keeping with the Pi Day theme, what did you do on Pi Day that was irrational or unusual?
I got Spring-struck! I took the over-winter plastic off the inside of the upstairs windows on the east side of the house. Set about assassinating dust bunnies under the beds up there, switched out the flannel sheets for regular ones, put away the extra comforters, moved my T-shirts into the easy-access wire bins closest to hand in the closet.
And then... I found out it's going to be 12ºF tonight --yeah, the Ides of March-- and fixin' to snow by Tuesday and Wednesday. So in retrospect my behavior seems highly irrational.
But no matter, it's back up to 67º on Friday and by then it will seem irrational still to have storm windows on in the rooms downstairs.
The middle of March --or the Ides of March as it was called in Roman times-- was considered clearly perilous after Caesar had met his end at that time of year in 44BC.
According to Plutarch, a seer had warned that harm would come to Caesar no later than the Ides of March. On his way to the Theater of Pompey, where he would be assassinated, Caesar passed the seer and joked, "The Ides of March are come", implying that the prophecy had not been fulfilled, to which the seer replied "Aye, Caesar; but not gone."
Silly me, I figured all that stuff about bollixed plans at the Ides of March were a matter of dusty ol' Roman history. But now with this rollercoaster weather for a second straight year just before calendar Spring, I'm thinking to call it "The Wild Rides of March."
Maybe next year when Pi Day rolls around I'll develop a fat case of oppositional defiance and go for behaving in a rational manner regarding Spring prep: look but don't touch.
