(Another) Year in the Vineyard, Week #2, March 25th 2010

(Another) Year in the Vineyard Week #2: March 18-25, 2010 “It’s My Party, So I’ll Write If I Want To…” (or) How a Vineyard Manager Spends his Birthday/’Day Off’ Ladies and gentlemen, I had no intention of blogging today, as I crossed this day off on my calendar and wrote:  ‘BDAY: Wallow in Your Own Crapulence.’  But as the day progressed, there was a series of events that will show that even the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry (or ‘gang aft agley’ if you want to be all literary/celtic/Burnsian and junk). 4:00 am:  The frost alarm goes off.  After checking dew points (the lower the more dangerous), hearing the neighbors’ frost machines on, and taking a thoughtful and anxious hour watching to see if 36 degrees was going to 35 degrees, I decided that the vineyard was safe and I could reset the alarm, go back to a warm bed and warm Chanda and warm Oliver, and if it got any colder, the alarm would get me up again.  After a few dozen emails and