The days are growing longer and have been since December 22. Our skies are so gray and gloomy and rainy that I barely notice unless I am sitting inside and a bit of sun finally breaks through at the time of sunset and I, with some surprise, notice that the sunset is still out there but a bit later.
For those who work nights or who, like my relative, work in a very dark office without windows and much light during the day and have had to actually order a full spectrum light to sit near their desk, I feel you deserve better. I do not know how they can keep their spirits up. They go for much of their lives without sunlight. It is SAD (Seasonal Adjustment Syndrome).
I do like that I can light the candles earlier in the evening and start a cozy fire in the fireplace and have an excuse for doing cozy rather than energetic things.
I have finished reading Upstream by Mary Oliver, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, but could not finish the Book of Kells as it seem a bit of a slog.
I am now reading some light, silly romance whose title escapes me. It takes place in the South and the heroine is overweight and insecure but has marvelous inner strength which she calls upon in her divorce.
The Christmas Decorations are re-packed except for two little wooden houses I had forgotten. I do think there is an unwritten rule of nature that you must always forget to put away a decoration or two!
Not sure why all of a sudden my other blog appears on my readers' (virtual friends) posts, but I have just compared the settings for both Blogs and made sure they are identical--as much as possible. Maybe the Google search gods have put down the eggnog and are back indexing bloggers posts and recognized my reset. I had been feeling like the decayed mushroom above and was wondering if I should just stop blogging for a while and do all those things I have been procrastinating about for a few years. Now it seems I have a brief reprieve with at least one blog being revived.
As most of you know, and many some of you agree, this new year will be a big challenge for those of us who love and support gender equality, education and access to that for others as well as ourselves, the free press and journalistic excellence in helping us understand what is going on (thinking about the movie Spotlight for example), the precious and fragile environment, labor laws and labor negotiations to empower the worker, access to healthcare for everyone---already in every major country, political humor that is satire, broadway (all theater actually), religious tolerance, acceptance of strange cultural foods and dress in this country, and trying to understand why polite behavior is no longer the norm but being PC is so yesterday. And what the hell is alt-truth? Is this snowflake being too sensitive?
Within the last two months there have been FIVE rope nooses hung at the liquid natural gas construction site and our Sheriff seems to be at a loss to find out who is doing this, and we wonder if this clearly racist act to some of us is looked upon as just a joke by our county government who thinks voters are too stupid to understand their policies. Maybe next we will see the Star of David painted in blood? This site has all kinds of security and cameras and limited access in part because it is next door to the nuclear power plant. We all wonder why the culprit has not been caught and why they have all this expensive security if it can be breached so often. I mean, even if you work there, you cannot drive onto the construction site, you must take a shuttle bus from the parking lot across the highway. So this freedom to threaten hate is now at my door. They have been required to bring in the Feds finally, but who can trust the FBI after our President-elect has pointed out their incompetence.
Anyway, my immediate challenge is a long list for the New Year and I am actually going through it pretty fast already. Therefore, I can ADD to it if I get energetic. Hubby is leaving tomorrow for a camping fishing trip to Florida which means I will be alone for two weeks. It will be a good challenge for me to be on my own, but I am guessing the TV will be on more in the afternoons for background noise.
Today is a rainy and cold day and so gloomy outside and I am sure that is contribution to the mood of this post. I promise to be more mellow next time.
