This May Be the End Of My Blog As We Know It; But I'll Use this Real Estate for Something

This is as close as I can come to Holiday Spirit:

Happy Hanukkah, or Chanukah

For the best ever Hanukkah song, Karen Zipdrive has it one post down right now. Take the trip, it's worth it. It is also the first day of Winter as well as Hanukkah, and the day we have a second or two more daylight. Or maybe it's just the pause that refreshes, but for all of us it's one more day to celebrate one more day when the weather outside is frightful and the furnace is so delightful (unless the power is out--then you're screwed). But do please find a way to celebrate for at least a second or two just because.

And start thinking about January 6th. That's the day I'll be celebrating my first day of blogging. The word "blog" had to be explained to me. I had no computing skills, but I'd been writing for thirty years. I had a few pieces my friends from New York, Rachel and David, insisted I publish, and a blog was a good place to start, they said. So here we are, almost one year later. I have to stock the bar, and find a good party hat. Warn the children there might be salty language. I have cleaned up my swearing act considerably thanks to my wonderful Administrator and co-blogger, Phillip of Sitenoise. Check him out. He's a terrific friend, but only Phillip has the power to really scare me. I'm not exactly sure why. I'll have to think about that. Maybe I just need a thrill now and then, so I piss him off, and his reaction scares me. I'm probably afraid he'll eventually think I'm just too damn dumb to associate with. Strange how close you can feel to someone you've never met. He has come into my house with his voice to tinker on my side of the screen, and it's real enough to scare Roscoe, who goes searching for the man he hears. I miss you Phillip. I've been out of sorts lately. I had a bad case of the Christmas Blues. I'm afraid it's contagious.

I go a little crazy now and then. I'm doing the holiday yo yo right now. Happy one minute, sad the next, and then throw in a flash of temper and you have a savage cocktail.

(Two bloggy things I'd like to learn this year are the blog roll shout out like other smart, savvy bloggers do, like, for instance, Mock Paper Scissors. The other is the art of posting photos. Dcup does it right. Oh how I'd love to have control of where the photos are placed within my piece. Blogger has three options so far as I can see, so you get a poor presentation here. That needs to change.)

Yesterday It Was Fall, Today It Is Winter

I have been taking photographs of the slow changing of the season. It is, ideally, a slow process, allowing a late season of harvests in the garden, and time to rake the leaves as they fall. But in one day it has gone from the gradual to the immediate. For weeks we had temperatures over night in the low 50's then the high 40's and last night we were supposed to barely touch 32 but not long enough to do much damage. Snow was forecast for the higher elevations, but not so much for the valleys. Yesterday was chill enough that I wore a jacket when I was gathering the plums I could reach on the lowest hanging branches. I planned to visit my neighbor's garden today to pick green tomatoes, the last of the zucchini and peppers. I'm afraid there is nothing left after the freeze last night. It was a hard freeze last night with snow in the valley. More snow is forecast today. A colder night is forecast for tonight. The only season I hate here is winter. And it has arrived. I must do some things today. I must shut off outside water. I must get swamp-coolers covered and their openings into the houses insulated and sealed. None of this is work I want to do. All this is the work that must be done when winter is breathing down your neck. Winters are harsh in the Mountain West. With our winter beginning before leaves in the valley have changed color, trees will lose limbs because of the weight of snow on leaf laden branches. If it continues this cold and snows often enough it will be impossible to rake the leaves when they do fall.

This shocking change of season has me finally in the mood to read. And it is Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine that I am curling up with.