What is Going ON?

OK is it spring yet?It’s not snowing and the buds on the magnolia tree are starting to get that hopeful look, so What’s going on?Where are the days of snow like steel needles being shot sideways into your face?The days when rhododendron all over the county are holding their leafy arms straight down and close to the body, like Irish Step Dancers, the way the only do when it’s really freezing out?What happened to winter?Old Dave and I were able to shingle and paint our whole house. starting two-thirds of the way through October and not finishing until December 12th. The painter said he had never before been able to pick up a brush for exterior work in November. never mind in December.Is this global warning finally showing its true face?The weather report says temps today will be only in the 20s but by week’s end they're supposed to be edging up again. And as far as I can tell there's no snow in sight until next Thursday at the earliest.So I just have one question:WHY, with the buds on the magnolia trying to get started all over again and the rhododendron holding their arms out like little kids spinning around to make themselves dizzy, why oh WHY can’t I wake up in the morning? I who always shot out of the bed at 6 if not 5:30 or even 5:00 to begin working, before coffee even? Am I actually growing calmer and less driven as I get older, or is it ...justthat it’s stillSo gosh darn DARK IN THE MORNING?

It's Ba-a-a-a-ck! On Winter's Approach

Well, we got through last week and now a new week is about to start and in this new week we will still be called upon to go out in the pitch-dark for evening meetings. WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR CULTURE THAT WE EVEN HAVE EVENING MEETINGS?  In other parts of the world people don’t do this, so what's wrong with us?This next week I’m slated to go out every single night, Monday for a meeting on the state of my soul, Tuesday for a meeting on the state of some young people in my life, Wednesday for a meeting on the state of my town, Thursday for our uncle's 91st birthday and Friday to drive 8 teenagers to a Poetry Jam and out roller skating afterward God help me, God help me. It all seems insane to me now.I felt crummy this past week and so stayed home nights. The one meeting I attended took place in my own living room which meant I could come to it in a semi-conscious state with a mind so muddled I couldn’t answer the simplest questions. But what if my lack of zip is the start of a trend, and here we are only one WEEK into the sad turning away from Daylight Savings Time? I looked around yesterday afternoon and noticed that an awful lot of leaves are still on the trees.  ‘Maybe winter won’t come after all’ I heard myself say. Then I actually told myself that at least the days would start getting longer now but  neither of those things is true!  (a) Winter is sure enough coming and I know this  well. I keep thinking of those poor souls stationed on the Wall  in  Game of Thrones. They're all trying to get themselves ready for that season of cold so brutal no one will talk about it, but I know just what it will be like!  It’s going to be so cold your earlobes will turn into wee frozen bagels. Your fingers will turn to icicles and fall shattering to the ground. And (b) the days aren’t getting longer! That’s six weeks from now that the days start getting longer! What’s happening now is they’re getting shorter and shorter and darker and darker.I spent all last week lying in the bed next to David who is like a big St. Bernard dog. HE doesn’t rush out to a lot of evening meetings unless it's part of his job. He meets our grown children for nice restaurant meals in the city and attends orchestral performances with them afterwards. I used to do this after falling dead asleep for the seventh time within the first 20 minutes of the concert's start I got uninvited.OK, I uninvited myself. There's something about the approach of darkness that just shivers my timbers.  When it's winter, either  in George R.R. Martin's world or in my own, here's where I really want to be:

Maybe I can figure out a way to sleep all day, THEN sneak out to those evening meetings(with a coat on over my PJ's and still be back in the bed by 9:00.)