Winter Time

Greetings and salutations, Wicked Readers and Writers alike. What do you think of our new digs? Remember to be kind. It is the charitable time of year, you know?

Our prompt this week is simply: Winter Time. When Anastasia and I spoke about this subject a week ago or so, we seemed to be inclined to allow the prompt to be a all-encompassing one, rather than to simply go for the Christmas theme. I think that was good. If you might find yourself tired of the hustle and bustle that is the holiday season, perhaps you'd like to think of something else just now. If so, then you've found the right place.

Here in the Central Valley of California, just south of Fresno, we get mild winters. Snow is just an hour or so away, but at our altitude it is pretty much non-existent. We don't get powerful wind storms, nor a ton of hail. In the valley we get earthquakes, although we don't get them often. We hear about them more often than we actually feel them. What we do get, however, is heat.

Obviously we don't get heat now, but when it does arrive during the summer, it isn't a lot of fun. Many of you might be asking what kind of heat it is that we receive? Is it the kind of hot that is so full of humidity that once you depart from the shower, you feel the instant need to climb right back in? No, thankfully. However, it is severe. It gets to be in the mid 100's, climbing as high as 110 on occasion. We have air conditioning in our homes and cars, but when it gets that bad, you don't want to do anything.

So why am I bringing up such a subject? Well, I'll tell you. As the rain comes down heavily in my part of the world this week, and much of last week as well, I shall not complain. Now that everything pretty outside my windows has lost its colorful leaves or flowers and looks like a twisted mangled mess that might be more fitting adorning a castle, I shall continue to hold my tongue. When these rains depart, leaving behind thick fog, making car travel extremely difficult, I will only frown. The sky may be overcast, the ground may be wet and trampled, the once-beautiful yards and gardens of my neighbors' homes may be nothing to behold, but summer is coming. And bringing with it a stifling, debilitating heat which makes life no fun unless you own a pool and can afford to live in it.



Or better yet, leave for the coast.

Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate the season. Happy Holidays to those that celebrate one of the other dates of note. Happy New Year to every one of us. May the new year bring continued health or a renewal of it. Much success to all who endeavour to write. May there be many more things to celebrate in the coming year, be it weddings, births, new jobs or published novels and short stories. I have had a lot of fun penning these posts for Wicked Writers, as well as the other blogs and Kings River Life Magazine articles that I have found myself working on this past year of discovery. This year of the realization of dreams.

May 2011 be a realization of dreams for all of us.