Counting Down

With no weather forecast to support it (the forecasters were wrong again), snow is falling here in Seymour.  More than a dusting this time, we will have a white Christmas.  Gary and I took a ride through Seymour looking at lights. I noted that tonight, Seymour looks like Bedford Falls, the town in "It's a Wonderful Life".  The snow transformed us. 

I am ready to be cheerful. I posted my last depressing Christmas story at Black Coffee Fiction, http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com   I expect my next stories to be more cheerful, though readers must understand that without something going wrong, there is no story.  That is the nature of fiction...and life.

Meanwhile, we look forward.  Tomorrow afternoon, our families gather here to celebrate Christmas, along with two church services.  With Christmas over, I begin a fast and furious charge to the end of the year, organizing and planning, culminating in New Year's Day.  

I still face the dreaded winter, but beginning today, I count the number of days until spring, as we watch the short days become long.  We are planning events to help us through the cold.  On January 20-21 there's the annual RV and camping show in Green Bay.  Friends will come up from Illinois and join us in planning next summer's camping. 

I will be taking a seven week fiction writing class beginning on January 28, seven Saturdays that will be force me to come up with new story ideas.  I've been writing all my life, but these classes are like tune ups for the brain synapses.  

Gary bought a new plant stand that will hold trays for seedlings by the end of March. Last year, we started 29 tomato plants, too many, but we certainly enjoyed those fresh tomatoes this past summer. 

It is 89 days until the equinox and spring.  As a gift to my friends and family, I do a daily countdown. I'll include it in this blog.