Spring Equinox

From the Topiary Gardens in Columbus, Ohio, Mike revels in the beautiful early spring weather and the increasing daylight afforded by the Spring Equinox, reflecting the seasonal joy of friends "thawing out" after winter and anticipating his upcoming birthday, which falls on St. Patrick's Day — a holiday he cheekily refers to as "heterosexual pride."

Hello, Facebook land! This is Mike George coming at you live on this beautiful Tuesday afternoon, which I believe is March 12th, 2024. The Lord is truly smiling upon us today, and it is a gorgeous, I mean, **gorgeous gorgeous day** here in Columbus, Ohio.

I'm coming to you live from the Topiary Gardens, right behind the Columbus Metropolitan Library in Downtown Columbus. The temperature is probably right around 20° Celsius—that’s 70° Fahrenheit for you imperial heathens—and I’m simply enjoying the splendor. This is one of my favorite parks in Columbus. You can see some of the topiaries ahead of me, these shrub figures that the park goes to great efforts to maintain. They are kind of reminiscent of a good old day at the park, with several figures holding umbrellas. I forget the specific painting this park is styled after, but I feel like most of you guys have probably seen the image these figures refer to.

This whole week is actually my absolute favorite time of year. We have that particular week right after Daylight Savings Time when we get that glorious extra hour of daylight, meaning a nice early sunrise and a nice late sunset. This year, we got the added bonus of excellent weather to bask in the sunshine, which you really can't beat on an evening like this.

Another reason this is my favorite time of year is that spring is nipping at our heels, and my birthday is coming up this Sunday, March 17th. That, of course, is also known as St. Patrick's Day. I like to refer to it, personally, as **heterosexual Pride**. You know how around June, during all the Gay Pride and queer Pride events, there’s always that one heterosexual friend who asks, "Well, when's heterosexual pride?" My answer for them is now St. Patrick's Day. Anyone who has enjoyed a truly debauched bar crawl in the middle of the afternoon on good old St. Patty’s Day can attest—the modern American vibe of St. Patrick’s Day totally reflects that of a heterosexual Pride event.

I love St. Patrick's Day, even if I weren't pretending that the entire world was celebrating my very own birthday. The weather is great, and you finally see the thaw out of all those people who have otherwise **hibernated in their little caves** this whole winter. It’s been an interesting week because I’ve gotten to reconnect with people who have been completely off my radar since, say, November or October. I joke that sometimes my life feels like a *Westworld* series, and half the cast—my friends—have been put away in cold storage for the winter. Now, they are finally coming out, thawing themselves out, and rejoining my life. That includes some of you guys on Facebook land.

Speaking of rejoining, I'm actually going to be heading over to the old oak where my **Wanda** is resting and charging up. This is one of the few occasions where I am out and about without her, and it’s actually kind of refreshing. It’s almost like one of those days where you get to leave the kids at home with the babysitter, and you can just kind of go out and be free. Not that Wanda’s an obligation, of course—I shouldn't talk trash on Wanda when she's not here—but I had forgotten how nice it is to carry nothing with me, even though she is lightweight. It’s nice to just not have her for a bit; it’s just me and you now, without the kids.

Now, I initially thought today might be the longest day of the year, but I quickly remembered that the longest day is the Summer Solstice. The significance of the **Spring Equinox**, though, is that it's the point where the rate of additional sunlight per day is at its maximum—it's like the derivative of the amount of sunshine seen in a day. This means the rapidity at which our days get longer is maximized, helping us truly climb out of our gray, depressing winter lives and **bask in the brightness**.

Since it's been a while since I’ve done a Facebook live for you guys, I guess it’ll be worthwhile to do a little update. I have a job interview coming up on Thursday for a job that I happen to be very qualified for. However, I don't like to make lofty expectations because every time I do, something goes tragically wrong. So, I'm keeping my expectations close to my chest and I'm just going to do my little song and dance for them and wow them, and we’ll see what happens.

This job would involve managing **distributed energy resources** (DER). That's just a fancy way of referring to small-scale generation facilities, essentially the equivalent of customers selling power back to the grid. Instead of the traditional large power plants belching out coal or natural gas, this would be like your neighbor having a miniature coal plant in their backyard, selling a kilowatt or two of power back. I refer to this entire paradigm conceptually as the **"too many chefs in the kitchen problem"**. If you want more information on distributed energy resources (formerly distributed generation), you can refer to my long-winded, traumatic master thesis from a decade ago, located on my website at mike.mg.xy.

You guys are awfully quiet—zero viewers, zero comments, zero stars. Since I don't have Wanda with me, there's no musical accompaniment to speak of; it’s just me riffing. But as I often say during moments like this, sometimes you have to remind yourself that **silence is its own song**. And in the wise words of my dear classmate Heather Smer, "silence means be quiet".

So with that being said, I’m going to take a little gander through the Topiary Gardens and give way to silence, hoping you pop up some comments. I’ll keep walking until I run out of Wi-Fi and just mysteriously disappear into the ether.

Oh, wait, quick little Public Service Announcement: **Clean up your doggies poo!**

I’m genuinely amazed that I still have Wi-Fi connection all the way from the library over yonder. Damn, 2024, we’ve done it! Far-range Wi-Fi makes up for all the other shit that doesn’t work these days, like my phone.

I think I’m seeing the bars of my Wi-Fi growing ever so faint, so this will be a good point to conclude the broadcast. This has been Mike George, coming at you live from beautiful Columbus, Ohio, from the Topiary Gardens. Wherever you are, hopefully, the sun is shining upon you, and remember: **take care of yourselves and take care of somebody else too**.