The Ides of March is the day on the Roman calendar marked as the Idus, roughly the midpoint of a month, of Martius, corresponding to 15 March on the Gregorian calendar. It was marked by several major religious observances. In 44 BC, it became notorious as the date of the assassination of Julius Caesar, which made the Ides of March a turning point in Roman history.

Or in our case, spring-like weather has descended on the Heartland and tornado warnings are expected this weekend. One weather forecast says we could get up to 80F today. Others are a little less generous. Told-ya, we don’t really have spring weather here anymore. It’s just cold one day and hot the next. And it’s those wide swings in temperature that provide the energy for chaotic weather. If you believe there is order in nature then you must believe tornadoes are good for something, just not for houses, buildings, or humans.

I was up at 2:30am last night to observe the total lunar eclipse, complete with a blood red moon. Very nice celestial show and I’m glad I woke for it. I stood in the driveway snapping a few photos that didn’t turn out so well and would have liked to have stayed outside for another 30 minutes or so but I heard some rustling behind me and saw a raccoon family sharing the driveway with me, maybe trying to get a better look at the moon, so I took my leave rather quickly.

I received a note from ARRL and my February 3rd LoTW application update has been processed and my new DXCC CW certificate is on the way via USPS! Since sending that in we’ve had a couple of DX contests and I’ve been fortunate to add a few new ATNOs (Galapagos, Tonga, Western Sahara) along with another 10 that are new on CW and 6 on Phone. It’s been a good first quarter, but I intend to wait awhile before submitting the next batch.

I’m hoping for several more confirmations between now and then.