We are now approaching the halfway point for April. I’ve looked over the calendar, and it’s a busy month. Easter will be on the 21st, we made it through April Fool’s day, Earth Day is on the 22nd and there are anniversaries for several historical events.
With the vernal equinox on March 20th, spring is now officially here. There are lots of wild flowers in our area this year and our hills are very green after all of the rain we’ve had. Birds and butterflies are busy migrating, it feels like winter is losing its hold and spring will finally come and stay for a bit.
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.
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.
As I write this, it is the middle of August, close to the start of the school year and the end of summer. Yet it’s still hot, the heat baking up from the concrete and blacktop when I move outside. Shade provides some relief but not with cooler temperatures, just a break from the sun beating down in a clear blue sky. The air conditioning runs non-stop, blowing cool air through the house but also a sense of cabin fever in closed up buildings.
Our summer has been quiet and the weather hasn’t been bad. We had one day of record breaking temperatures and a few more days of really hot weather but most of the summer has been pleasant. When my son and I walked the other evening, there was a slight breeze on the trail and a few clouds gliding by in the sky overhead. While we don’t usually get thunderstorms we do get monsoonal flow, which is why there were a lot of clouds. In the afternoon, they build up and tease us with possible thunderstorms, huge clouds building up over the mountains.
