Oh what a day. Spring appears to be here. The ground is showing, the snow is fading away as the warm sun smiles upon what is left. So I thought I would celebrate just a little. At my age it doesn’t take much of an incentive to celebrate some. I made a trip to the local grocery store and bought some party supplies. Chips and American whiskey were the prime ingredients for this trip. I was feeling full of spring fever as I organized my party goods. Feeling lucky that I got the opportunity to sit here and party. I sat and watched the deer come and go as I began my party. I thought things were going great and felt free and at ease. I had my small glass of whiskey, and my cold bean sandwich. I had already readied the French Onion dip and was getting ready for the bowl of chips. Here is where the luck started to change. I had purchased two bags of chips because they were on sale. When I opened the first bag of chips I began to realize just how great things were going to go. Instead of 1,000 chips, plus or minus, I had what must have been 10,000 chips. I swear there was not a chip there greater in size than a quarter. There definitely was no need to worry about dipping them in the French Onion dip. I suppose it would work alright as long as I kept licking my fingers upon each dip. Well not to be undaunted I still wanted to celebrate just a bit. It was spring after all. A bite of my cold bean sandwich, a small sip of whiskey and some chips. There was no need to chew much on the chips, they were already bite sized. But as I began to swallow, the pallet objected. Coughing and sneezing began to follow. Now, I am not sure if it was the beans or whiskey that came out the nose, but the eyes began to tear up. Quite a comedy of errors ensued. Whiskey and chips went a flying and thus ended my spring celebration. I don’t think I can blame this all on the chips, but they were a part of the problem. One should at least be able to dip a wish chip into the French Onion dip to begin the celebration, but not today. And so my spring has started but not quite as I had planned. Maybe, just maybe, I should have stuck with just a small sip of whiskey and called it enough. But then, I was never one to stop when good was good enough.   Happy spring to you fine folks.  Ken White COB mountainman