After the last few weeks of cold, rainy weather, I’m ready for winter to end. There was a break in the clouds today, it felt good to weed out our vegetable garden in the front yard. The ground was still soft enough to make it easy to pull the weeds.

This last weekend was a bit different, my son and I attended a science fiction convention, CondorCon. After several very busy weeks at work, I enjoyed the break, getting out and listening to authors talk about writing, watching people dressed up as their favorite characters and stepping back from every day life. We were even blessed with sunny weather, just in time for the convention and any out of town visitors to our fair city.

It’s the middle of February and winter is definitely in place, in your face and ready to rock and roll. Based on the current decor choices, gray and cloudy with some more gray and cloudy in the forecast, I think most people are ready for a change in the season. Unfortunately, it looks like winter is offended that her welcome is worn out and giving us a cold shoulder along with ice, snow, and rain, depending on how far north you live.

The month of January is moving quickly, sometimes a little too quickly for me. In my opinion, January should be hibernation time, with a couple of weeks for recovery from the holidays, but instead it is a time of increased activity and resolutions as people start fresh in life.

Happy New Year to everyone, I hope your year has started off well. And thank you to those who wished me well after I wrote about not feeling at my best.  I am feeling better now, although I would prefer to hibernate this time of year, if I had the opportunity. I am glad I don’t get sick that often.

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.