5:00 pm was the bewitching hour.

Get your bills to the Clerk’s Office by that deadline and you avoid the delay of having them referred to the Rules Committee. Most bills eventually emerge from Rules, but your public hearing date will be later rather than sooner.

With two days of hearing already lost to snow, bills are already being scheduled for March 23.

I thought I was going to be the lead sponsor of legislation that amended a law I passed several years ago. But the delegate who had requested the revisions to that law decided he would be listed first on the sponsor line and I would be second. (It won’t affect my effort on behalf of the bill.)

I put one bill in the hopper right after the morning floor session and another early this afternoon, after my staff had proofread the changes we had requested to the prior version.

I had to do the proofreading on two bills bill that became available at 4:50. They are bond bills for improvements to the Swann Ave. and Glen Ave. Firehouses.

Glen had an extra “n”.

With the correction made, Delegate Oaks and I were the last members to make it to the Clerk’s office.

They stayed open until 5:05 pm. We had told them we were coming.