Category: Seasons

Groundhog Day

In 2017, Ohio’s own Buckeye Chuck saw his shadow and predicted more winter. In Cincinnati, temperatures for February and March of last year stayed above average. It was one of our warmest and earliest springs. So much for predictions.

But, since 2006, Buckeye Chuck has been twice as accurate as that famous furry Pennsylvanian, Punxsutawney Phil, with six correct predictions to Phil’s three.

Today, Chuck saw his shadow again. As did Phil. The moral of the story, as stated by meteorologists at Cincinnati’s News 5, is that any weather predictions further than a week out are a gamble but THEY are most likely to get it right.

What is the deal with phamous Phil? The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lists Groundhog Day predictions since 1988. Only six of Phil’s last 30 predictions were correct, the NOAA reported.

Apparently, Ohio’s very own fluffy weather forecasting groundhog, Buckeye Chuck, spends his time hibernating in his native town of Marion, Ohio. This reminds me of a joke. Here it is: Do you know where Engagement, Ohio is? It is between Dayton and Marion.

So all the fuss about Groundhog Day is just that ~ a lot of fuss. I heard people on the radio today who were truly upset about it. Are you kidding me? We are going to base our moods on a mythical holiday?

Newsflash Cincinnati (and America): IT IS WINTER. IT IS GOING TO BE WINTER UNTIL IT IS SPRING. We may get 15 more feet of snow or we may see temps in the 70’s by the end of the month. And here is the real newsflash: THERE IS NOT A DANG THING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT. I know. We all want control. We all want concrete plans. We all want life to be what we want it to be.

I suggest we all loosen up, chill out (literally), retain your long underwear, keep the hot cocoa available and enjoy these days of winter. They absolutely have a beauty of their own.

I am actually fond of winter. I am like a plum or wild greens or mushrooms, I keep better in the winter. My hair is better. My skin is better. My wardrobe is better. I am much more a cozy fireplace, sled-riding, hot homemade soup, moonlight on the snow, cashmere sweater, UGG boots, red woolly mittens kind-of-girl. Yes, a 60 year-old girl.

If it were up to me, Phil and Chuck would crawl back into their burrows and sleep till September.

 

 

The Longest Night of the Year

This post is for all of you heat-seeking, flip-flop wearing, humidity-admiring (you people be crazy), sunburn-getting, light till 9:30 PM-ing, summer-loving folks. It is your day.

Today is the official first day of winter. Winter solstice marks the darkest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere due to the sun being at its most southern position, directly above the Tropic of Capricorn. What that means, convertible owners, is that after today you will receive one extra minute of daylight. By January 7, though, we’re adding a full two minutes, one at sunrise and one at sunset.

Following January 7, the days begin to get longer twice as fast as they were between December 21 and January 7. Heck, by February 1, you can break out your swimsuits and get a jump on that summer burn.

Some cultures celebrate the night of the Northern Hemisphere’s winter solstice as “Yalda night”, which is loosely translated the “longest and darkest night of the year”. On this night, all of the family gather together, usually at the house of the oldest, and celebrate by eating and drinking and reading poems. Nuts, pomegranates and watermelons are traditional celebratory foods.

Astrology website Lunar Living, advised “You may feel limited and constrained today, but do not let that feeling keep you from living up to your obligations.” Crap! I was planning to use the winter solstice as an excuse to stay on the sofa all day.

On this winter solstice day (and Healthy Thursday), l must add a serious note. There are individuals who truly suffer with seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a type of depression that’s related to changes in seasons. For most people with SAD, symptoms start in the fall and continue into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody.

If symptoms linger for an extended period of time, physicians advise that you do not brush off those feelings as simply a case of the winter blues. Take steps to keep your mood and motivation steady throughout the year. Bundle up and get outdoors, even on a cloudy day. Take a brisk walk. If stuck indoors, be active. Bake cookies with your grandchildren or bake cookies for a neighbor. Keep inspirational music going. Sit by your fire with a mug of hot cocoa and plan your spring activities. Spring will return. It always does.

For those of you who truly want to celebrate winter solstice, come on over. Last Saturday, I received a bottle of wine as a hostess gift. We will feast on pomegranates and watermelons (and maybe pizza), drink up that wine and read Emily Dickinson until we weep.

Enjoy the extra daylight, parrot-heads.

WOI

Today I assisted with a work event, the annual Women of Influence awards luncheon. It is a time to recognize women who have contributed to the Cincinnati community by way of corporate jobs or philanthropic positions or entrepreneurship.

A part of the program is a pre-recorded question/answer video interview. One of the questions was: “What would you go back in time and do differently?” There were various answers. My favorite one was the woman who said she would change nothing. She said that who she is today has been shaped by every single thing that she has done or what happened to her. Good and bad. Joyful and painful.

Many times I have thought about things I should have done differently; made different decisions about jobs or places to live, been a better daughter or wife or mother, let go of things more quickly, held on to things more tightly, said less, said more, held back, rushed forward.

Yet, there is not one thing we could change in our past that would not also change our present.

Whenever I have felt like a failure in some part of my life, I have been somewhat comforted by the truth that I did the best I could at the time. My younger self only knew what I knew then.

Though we all do, berating ourselves for past failures is lose, lose. We feel even more defeated by replaying the scenario over and over. And in doing that, we also lose the only thing we have at this very moment ~ time.

We must give ourselves and each other grace. There is nothing we can do to change our past. Perhaps we should stop trying.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers

Um…yes, yes, yes and yes. I will have all of the above. That is what I thought when I saw this sign tonight. I covered an event for the magazine at MadTree Brewing Company in Oakley. I had never been inside. Big, interesting, open and dog-friendly (on the patio).

My event was in a smaller room, set aside from the main pub/restaurant. The place was completely packed. Some of our guests came in complaining that there was not one parking space to be found in the very large lot.

The beer may be epic and life-changing and everything listed on the rustic wall menu may be as heavenly as it sounds. However, there must be more. On a “school night” in the middle of the week, this expansive building is filled to capacity.

It is community. We are designed to be in community. Some find it in their work. Some find it in their family. Some find it at church. Some may find it in all of those places and also enjoy it in this setting.

I look around and people are hugging and back-slapping (lovingly) and laughing and feeling connected to other people. It is a primary basic need. Human connection. We are made for it.

Remember the old Cheers theme…

You wanna go where people know,
People are all the same,
You wanna go where everybody knows your name.

Yep. Every person on this planet yearns to feel normal and alive and connected and have someone remember their name. You may never go into MadTree or a place similar to it, but never forget that someone, somewhere needs to be included and remembered and given a (loving) back-slap or hug or a smile. People are all the same.

I am not a beer drinker but I can highly recommend the soft pita triangles dipped in Psycho-hummus and spicy guacamole and MadTree’s own icy cold house-made peach soda. Though I’m sure the chicken bacon ranch pizza with roasted garlic and olive oil, chicken, bacon, spinach, roasted tomatoes and ranch is to die for…I’ll be back.

Diamonds

Diamonds are made under pressure. That is photo of the picture side of my kitchen calendar for the month of October.

There is always pressure. Sometimes it is huge and one can nearly, literally feel the weight of it upon the head or the shoulders. Is that when diamonds are made?

Then there are days that turn into weeks of pressure. Those days upon awakening and at the first flutter of sleepy eyes, bam! There it is, that pressure. Is that when diamonds are made?

Some lives appear to feel pressure from the very start. At earliest memory, pressure, the sidekick. Always there. Always there about nothing or everything. Is that when diamonds are made?

There are moments (and days and weeks and years) that I would be completely okay to just be cubic zirconia.

Sunday with Mom

Another perfectly glorious fall day. In the afternoon I was scheduled to be with Mama. She has had such a pleasant lightness of spirit lately. It is a joy to be around her. She still has dementia and she still has fears and she still has lost her filter but she is more like the mama I have always known and loved.

We took a long walk, with her arm hooked through mine. We looked at the lovely sky and she sang bits of “How Beautiful Heaven Must Be”. We talked about my house and land and she told me that I should be so very grateful. I am. We looked at my flowers and the Edison lights strung across my patio, still there from a truly magical wedding reception in June. We listened to the crickets and stared at the waxing moon. We drank it all in then went inside as the darkness fell and ate hot pizza and drank cold root beer. We watched Bonanza and got sleepy and went to bed early. Good day. Simple Day. Looking forward to more of those.

Fall

Today was the creme de la creme of autumn. The weather could not have been more pure perfection for the festivities available. Noah and I decided to go to the 35th annual Country Applefest. We had visions of apple fritters and hot apple cider and fudge/caramel apples on a stick and all things fall. Apparently everyone else in Warren County had the same visions. One must remember to keep your dreamy ideas intact while awaiting a 30 minute entrance into the fairgrounds parking lot.

We were a tad disappointed to discover that the apple fritters were being sold by our local Stan the Donut Man bakery. We had envisioned bonneted Amish women with flawless skin, peeling apples and grinding cinnamon and using their lovely, milky white hands to roll out tender layers of flaky pastry, in slow motion. Though Stan, we do love your doughnuts and the fritters were fine. Fairground food is always wonderful. We purchased a harvest craft and a Christmas craft and took in the sensory love of the season.

This evening, we visited The Cone on the day before it closed for the season. Their pumpkin ice-cream is truly delicious. It was a quintessential all things fall kind of day and it was good. Occasionally you have to embrace stereotypicality.