winter solstice

 Shortest day of the year.  From here on in the days will be getting longer.  But that will be because the sun is setting later, not because it is rising sooner.  The sun will continue to raise later until January 8th.  Never quite understood that, tried to have Mr G explain that to me, but, well, it didn't take.  

But that is not the big news of the day, nor is it the approaching holidays which are certainly big news, but you know they come every year and what we like about them is that they are pretty much the same every year, and that's what we like about them, the same people, the same places, the same food, and that same little battered star to top the tree.  Ours was a little plastic red one, likely bought at some bargain counter for about a nickel, for maybe three weeks of glory every year.  I wish I had it today.  Maybe it would induce me to get a tree.  In all my adult life I have never had a Christmas tree.  That sounds a little sad to me, but, you know, not really.  Too much trouble.

But the big news is the really big storm which is to hit sometime tomorrow as the meteorologists reckon.  Not that much snow, maybe a foot, but temps near zero, which again is not that big a deal, but those fifty mph winds give it the kick.  Another thing is that it's nationwide, first hitting land in Oregon and Washington then roaring across the lonely plains and right now raising some hell in the prairie, but I don't believe it has hit the Mississippi yet.

Puts a boom into the holiday season.  All those poor travelers likely to be stranded, Uncle Ken unwilling to take his Friday night ride to the Ten Cat, my sister's little gathering, one of the nephews, his squeeze, her, and me imperiled by risky trips to the groceries under the storm approaching eastwards.

Christmas, New Years, bam bam, and then nothing but winter.  Well here's the thing.  There will be those dark unpleasant days when nothing goes right so you don't try much, and when you at last crawl into bed, thinking then that you have accomplished nothing, but you don't feel all that bad about it because, you got through another day, tore a page off that day to day calendar and now there is one less day of winter and summer is one day closer.  

In the summer, on the other hand you crawl into bed after a day jam-packed with swimming, or golfing, or just strolling with your hands in your pockets, but there was maybe an hour when you couldn't decide what swim suit to wear, or you had to wait for your tee time, or maybe there was a bit of rain on your walk, and that's the hour you think of.  Wasted.  An hour of precious summer, which you can never get back and now it is a little closer to winter.  

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.