A Bob's Life: Monday Musings

Easter Sunset
Odenton, MD
April 5, 2026

1. Welcome to the first Monday of April. Wow! It is hard to believe that we have entered the second quarter of the year. There are only 38 Mondays remaining in the year.

2. It is Easter Monday. Many schools are closed as families continue to celebrate the Easter season. The end of Spring Break in Anne Arundel County is today. Tomorrow begins the final push to complete the school year!

3. Chris and I travel again tomorrow. We are returning to South Florida where I hope the weather will be more consistently warm. I will report on the status of BWI, although Southwest indicates that lines have returned to normal. I like normal because I know how to deal with normal.

4. We were treated to a beautiful sunset last evening. It was even more exciting because the trees are showing signs of leafing. No longer tall twigs, the trees are becoming shade providers.

5. Some of the threats the President is making against Iran, if carried out, constitute war crimes. The orders to attack power plants and water desalination stations would therefore be illegal orders subjecting our brave military personnel to also be labeled and prosecuted as war criminals.

6. Today in History. April 6, 1917: Two days after the U.S. Senate voted 82 to 6 to declare war against Germany, the U.S. House of Representatives endorses the declaration by a vote of 373 to 50. As a result, America formally enters World War I.

When World War I erupted in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson pledged neutrality for the United States, a position that the vast majority of Americans favored. Britain, however, was one of America’s closest trading partners, and tension soon arose between the United States and Germany over the latter’s attempted quarantine of the British Isles.

Several U.S. ships traveling to Britain were damaged or sunk by German mines, and in February 1915 Germany announced unrestricted warfare against all ships, neutral or otherwise, that entered the war zone around Britain. One month later, Germany announced that a German cruiser had sunk the William P. Frye, a private American vessel. President Wilson was outraged, but the German government apologized and called the attack an unfortunate mistake.