Good morning.

(Rant deleted due to taking up too much space.)

I rant all this b/c it's easyt o get caught up in the *words* and forget the *consequences* of those words.

So today, share a "they said what?!" moment, get it out of your system, and let us be FREE on FRIDAY!

***

BTW, my deleted rant almost matches the time Hubby said I was cute when I was curled up with cramps. Yeah, he said that. "Aw, you're so cute when you're balled up in pain." Yes, well, I'm not a puma for nothing. When he hit the floor, I asked him if he felt cute now that *his* reproductive parts hurt. Now he knows.... give me chocolate, back out of the room carefully, and say *nothing* about *cute* and *pain* in the same da*n day. Ever. Again. Yes, I whacked him in his family jewels. I was, at the time, curled up with post-miscarriage cramps. I was not emotionally stable, remotely rational, or possibly sane that day. We're still married, he's intact, everyone calm down! Even Hubby looks back on that and says, "Wow, I said that... ANd you let me live?"

***

I did not sleep enough again, can you tell? I am all raw nerves and cranky-pants. Weather changed *again*. And we had a possum on the porch and Hubby freaked out and by the time I calmed him down.... Sleep? Yeah, the possum slept. Me, not so much. Honestly, just turn on a light nad yell "Get outta here!" and stomp your foot and possums waddle off without too much worry. Nope, he's all, "Get a shovel! Get a rake! It's between me and the shovel!".... I swear, you'd think it was Possum Apocalypse, LOL.

***

A week until St. Patrick's Day, for those inclined to celebrate, care, or drink SHamrock Shakes at McDonald's. I admit, I like one small SHamrock Shake every year, then never see McD's again till.... my next Shamrock Shake. I love mint. Yum!

***

Busy day in history.

Back in 241 BC, Rome's navy sunk about 50 or so of Carthage's ships. This was a big deal b/c Carthage was a huge commercial empire, and Rome ran afoul of them. (Rome idd a lot of that.) Carthage and Rome fought a few wars, formal or otherwise, that eventually led to Rome taking over the Mediterranean from Carthage in terms of commercial dominance and then political and cultural dominance, too, over a few centuries' time. Look this up under "Punic Wars". The city of Cartagena in Spain, btw, was originally "Cartagena Nuevo", or "New Carthage" under the Romans, and is still an important naval station. Like Barcelona, on my list of Must-See cities on the bucket list. Hubby was to both and said the'yre gorgeous. Worth the visit for the architecture, ambience, etc.

Speak of Rome, Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon this date in 49 BC, a symbolic gesture that meant he had crossed the boundary into what was considered Roman lands (modern Italy) and thus declaring war (without declaring it) on Rome itself, even though he was technically its premier general, skilled politician, and highborn noble type. In short, he wanted more than Rome gave him, in part b/c his political foes feared how far he'd go. He was, for his day a "progressive populist". By modern standards, meh. Thus do times change. Bear in mind, Julius Caesar's "radical" ideas included removing corrupt officials from office and *gasp* making legislation only about the issue, no little "riders" attached to sneak other things in/past the Senate and Assembly. (Sound familiar?) Caesar won his war, became Dictator (an appointed position) of Rome, wasa assassinated, and left such division and strife behind that Rome's republic became an empire, headed by his great-nephew, the ultimate public-works-and-political-shmoozer Gaius Octavius, later named Augustus. Yes, we named the month August for him and July for Julius. Awww.... BTW, Gaius Octavius-turned-Augustus-Caesar really did do a ton to shape up ROme with public works, but his political genius lay in convincing everyone he was just one more guy in the Senate, really, he was, don't honor him so, thanks so much for the honors, and gee, you take my opinion as law, that's so sweeeeet! .... His buddy Agrippa had the military genius to back that up but never tried for more. No one is sure why to this day. Agrippa seemed happy enough to get to general things and help fix sewers and roads and design things. He had that knid of mind, Augustus let him have fun, and from all accounts, the two combined had all the genius you'd ever never want in one person. Which may be why they got away with it and Juilus Caesar---reputed to be skilled in war and in poiltics equally right up till he got assassinated---did not.

I'll note further that the first Julian emperor---Augustus---remained the best. The line devolved into Nero, Caligula, and other fun types. Oh joy.

And if you think mine sfaety isn't relevant, today in 1906, over 1000  died in a mine explosion/collapse at Courrieres, France. An arrangement of shafts and pitheads designed to make it easier to get coal to the surface ironically meant the initial explosion of coal dust (sparked by what, no one is sure) edned up traveling through what may have been 100km of tunnelworks. (About 60 miles.)  That is a rough estimate, btw, and contested, b/c frankly, the maps of the minig company didn't use consistent measurements for depth and so on. But 1000-plus men died, soooo.... Figure it was a damn big kaboom.

***

And on this day, I sign off to get more sleep. Cheers,

Leo