Winter's potpourri has many longing for spring

Morguefile/Alex France

Super Bowl has taken place. Some folks from New England are still in shock as of this writing. Now, that was truly a great sports show. I typically don’t get into football viewing, but the Super Bowl has been a treat over the past few years.

Aside from the game itself, there was more attention paid to the Pepsi Halftime Show featuring solo recording artist/actor/dancer Justin Timberlake. Let’s face the fact that mainly older folks who dub themselves music purists panned the performance. The younger set for the most part, were open to the multi-song dance-fest which also featured a hologram of the late singer-songwriter-guitarist-actor Prince. The tribute was apropos since Prince hailed from Minneapolis where Super Bowl 52 took place on that evening.

Music mavens had an issue with the Prince hologram during the Pepsi Halftime Show, saying that the legend would have had issues with the act. Perhaps they are right, but it seems like Timberlake had his heart in the right place, as he explained his strategy later that evening on a special installment of NBC-TV’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. It was truly a heart-warming tribute. It seemed that Mr. Fallon attempted to eclipse the idea of a tribute by doing one himself, a Bob Dylan tribute – complete with turning the production from color into black white. The idea was to evoke the memory of a young Bob Dylan performing to a packed theater in 1960s Minneapolis, the legendary folk artist’s hometown.

The stock market tumbled. What’s next? Oh yeah, that’s right: Valentine’s Day. But forget about all of that. Did anyone see that all these groundhogs saw their shadows – meaning six more weeks of winter? I have a feeling that there were some death threats to these groundhogs.

I always say that we should be careful what we wish for. Methinks we have short memories as we experience cold to mild February temperatures. Remember that last summer was hot? Well, it will not be far until we are back up to 90 degrees Fahrenheit or even hotter. We’ll be longing for the cold temps in no time. Even though we have had some snow/ice events and heavy rain, the experts state that we are behind on rainfall numbers. Certainly, that might change since the weather is volatile like the stock market.

Even though February is an uber-short month, it’s packed with great holidays and events. Look no further than President’s Day. Not only are the mattress deals great, we get the chance to honor our legendary US presidents while most of government is closed – or government could be closed for several weeks on its own, but I don’t wish to jinx anything now.

Let’s not forget the festivities surrounding Mardi Gras – which is an amazing outdoor/indoor party in early February that remains completely unforgettable. Then again, we have Valentine’s Day right on Mardi Gras’ heels. Ash Wednesday shares Valentine’s Day so we are in quite a busy February.

Winter is quite bizarre around these parts. One day it can feel like a beautiful spring day with sunshine, mild temps and low humidity. The next, it’s either heavy rain or worse yet, ice or snow. For me, that’s why it’s hard to plan road trips. You never know what you’re going to get. Before we know it, March will be upon our doorsteps. Hopefully it will be mild and please, no snow or ice events.