I am so glad that March is gone this year. It is true that the saying “febrero loco y marzo otro poco”. This march madness includes the weather, the basketball games, and unlikely accidents.
First off, the weather. I couldn’t believe that our weather is so unpredictable and even the weathermen on tv were baffled. How can we have freezing weather one day and warm weather the next. I was trying to stay warm one day and cool the next. It might be warm in San Antonio, but it is still cold up in Wisconsin and the northern states until way after Easter. In fact, back in 1972 I left El Paso, Texas on an Easter Sunday for Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. When I left it was a warm day. Short sleeve weather. However, when I got to Wisconsin, it was snowing and cold and I didn’t have my overcoat. So, that was my first venture into climate difference.
The next item is basketball. I grew up playing basketball on the Wesly Community House outdoor basketball court before the court was paved and the hoop was a bicycle tire rim. They paved it later, but I still remember all those scrapes and bruises from playing outdoors. Now I would like to say that I love to play basketball. At one time I did play with the Jr. Voks at Lanier High School. That was short-lived because my love for the discipline in the ROTC was more to my liking. I continued playing basketball at Wesley with some of my Lanier friends and won a city championship. Now, here we are in March where all the college teams are playing for the championship, and I am now attuned to my favorite shows on tv, and they are taken out because of the game. I never in my life liked to watch a basketball game unless I was playing in it. I still don’t!
Everything happens in March. We have the Lenten season, the weather changing, Daylight savings and others. However, for me, things went sour in March. My wife and I are getting to a point where we must watch our steps when we go out. Just this one time when we were leaving a restaurant, I let go of her hand to get the car door open when she tripped over a manhole cover and broke her left wrist. I had to take her out to the hospital where they put a cast on her arm. She was in pain for about a week and was under medication for that. Meanwhile I started to do everything that she would have done by herself including dressing her, cooking, picking her up from bed or chair and just tend to her needs. That lasted three weeks until she stared to feel better. She is from a stock that doesn’t want to feel sorry for herself and even when she was down, she started to fend for herself as much as possible. She is in her fifth week of recovery and now cooking breakfast and lunch with a little help from me. I open cans, bring food to the able and serve her. I am and have always been her left hand. There are certain things that she is not able to do. Put on socks for instance. I still must put on a plastic bag over her cast on her left arm so she can bathe. I will be continuing these activities until she can swing her left arm at my head and slaps me like Will Smith did to Chris Rock and walk away. Honest, I forget to duck. It will be nice to have her back to normal.