In this week before Christmas, my thoughts are rambling, shifting, and not very focused. As preparations for the holiday increase, work is slowing down a bit in recognition of the season. There is still work to be done before taking a break but things are moving slower as people spend time with family and friends. The days are shorter, the nights longer and the lights on the houses have more time to brighten the evenings.

This week is part of the holiday season and also the week I celebrate my birthday. I was able to take a day off from work and I enjoyed just being with my family today. We had errands to run, so we were busy with that most of the day. Not quite the way most people celebrate, but it works for us.

I had meant to write about writing, but I have been thinking about the election this week. With the recent election cycle, I have been thinking about things I’d like to see in the future. While it is easy to focus on the political parties as the cause of all of the problems, I wanted to look a little deeper. Here are a couple of things I would like to see change.

The end of October is nearly here and we are quickly approaching my favorite day of the year. No, not Halloween, the day I’m waiting for is the end of Daylight Savings Time, yay! I look forward to the increase in natural light in the early morning which will aid me in getting up to face the day. I have enough problem getting out of bed in winter, aka the Sleeping Season, so anything that helps me get up in the morning is mostly welcome. At least until a hibernation season is declared so we can all catch up on our sleep in January.

Our weather is finally changing to fall like temperatures. Everyone is enjoying the break from the summer heat and daytime highs in the 70’s. For me, I am even happier with cooler nights so I can sleep more easily.  This month my thoughts are about harvest time, even though we don’t really live in farm country.

I thought I’d provide a quick update for those who are interested in our books. I have finally finished my review of the sequel to Doing the E.T. Tango, which is a good feeling. There is still a lot of work to be done, the book is two separate stories which need to be merged. I also estimate that the word count is between 90,000 and 100,000 words, which is a lot more than we had planned. The next step will be merging the story and cutting it down to size, than editing, etc.

Time continues to fly by and September is almost half over. For the first part of this week, like many others, I remembered where I was seventeen years ago when the world changed. I have not seen the memorials in New York but I have seen a piece of that history here in California.

With the end of August, it is time for a new year to start. While January is one starting place, even though it was a long time ago, I link September with a fresh start and beginning again. A school year is starting over in a new grade, with brand-new supplies, different teachers and unfamiliar lessons. I enjoyed summer vacation but there was a sense of expectation when a new school year started.