Alphabet Blogging

I practically pounded my head against the table to come up with something to blog about this week. What’s fresh, what’s interesting that I haven’t talked about? Yeah, I know, but I talk a lot and that in itself makes it a difficult question to answer. Anyway, I decided to give something a try—call it an experiment. I’m going to blog from A-Z. The topic will be about the first word that pops into my mind that starts with the letter for that week. That’s right, the first word, whatever it is—no cheating. I promise. Not only will this answer the all important question, “What should I blog about this week?”, it will challenge me. Don’t know what I mean? Try blogging about the word “it.”


So, I’ll kick this Saturday off with “A”.

A is for April. April showers bring forth mud season. Is it just me, or is April really an unattractive month? Perhaps it depends on where you live, or if you were born in that month. To me April is about snow melt and rain. Not quite winter, and definitely not spring. No leaves have emerged, or tulips have sprouted. I think perhaps it’s my least favorite month. I mean, what does it really have to offer?

What we have in my neck of the woods is all that ugly snow on the sides of the roads, melting away and leaving behind the trash that got plowed along with it in winter storms. April is like the moment after a battle, when the field goes silent and the gun fire ceases. You look out as the smoke clears, to see the bodies of the wounded and dead littering the ground.

Perhaps that’s why April has such a beautiful birthstone. It should have something extraordinary to make it stand out. After all, it starts off as one big joke and ends it with a great big, thank God, it’s May and I’m standing on firmer ground. It doesn’t have the awakening spring season of May, or the weddings of June, the July and August celebrations and barbeques. It doesn’t have the harvests of September and costumes of October, the feasts of November and gifts of December. It doesn’t have the celebration of love as February, or the Irish jig of March. No, April marks the time of tax deadlines and evaluations of yearly budgets, snow melts and winter cleanups. Its traditional etymology comes from the Latin word aperire, which means to open, signifying the time when the flowers and trees bud up and open—again, not here, unless you’re opening up that wallet and paying Uncle Sam. What’s the Latin word for broke? April also used to be Venus’s month. I think she has long since moved on to greener months.

Well, sometimes it does have Easter, that first Sunday after the first full moon, on or after March 21st. Chocolate and hidden treasures, fluffy bunnies, chicks and newborn baby animals. Perhaps I’m being too harsh. April is not so bad after all.

Ugh, March. What does March have to offer?