I write a monthly column for Quilcene’s Community Center. You probably don’t get it in your inbox.  Luckily, here’s the latest, only slightly past it’s ‘new’ date.  For an update, political reality keeps getting more intense; if you pay attention.  SO:

Hibernating, Hunkering, Hallmark Channel Binging

I’ll try to keep this simple. Not that anything in life is simple. Not that we really like simple. While I’m writing this, it’s still January, and we have had, this month, some snow; but mostly we have had, and are still having, record rain; constant, November-like rain. There are deep ruts in the gravelly-ist driveways, puddles large enough to have names and an attendant flock of waterfowl; birds stuck, mid-migration, and indecisive, as likely to fly east or west as north or south.

Not really. They might be thinking of just staying here in Quilcene. The snow levels in the mountains, Olympics and Cascades, seem to go up and down with some sort of rhythm. Mostly it’s rain, rain, rain, rain. Yeah, I know, next line is, “Oh my pillow’s soaking wet.” I don’t want to look it up.

Not that I could decipher the beat as I, to name-check a song title, “listen to the rhythm of the pouring rain” (okay, I did look this up. It was originally done by the Cascades, they being- didn’t look this up, from San Diego- no Cascades nearby). Still, we all dance to that rhythm.

Not necessarily gracefully.

So, if we had cold-to-freeeezing but clear weather in November, and if I can’t really remember what the weather was like in December (I’m guessing rain, but could have had some sun- no more than six hours maximum- pretty sure on that), and we had the rain in January, what about February?

Well, let’s hope for the best.

Hope.

I feel compelled to mention that Valentine’s Day and Groundhog Day are both in February. I think. Again, don’t want to look it up, but we are talking about romance and, again, some sort of hope in how long we have to wait for, you know, spring, and with it, yes, spring rains.

Meanwhile, many of us have done some amount of hibernating, some hunkering-down. Referencing, again, the romance angle, there is the opportunity to binge watch romance (as a genre) movies on, for example, the Hallmark Channel. One would, of course, as in the case with an overlarge box of chocolates, have to offset this sweetness with, perhaps, as an example, seasons one and two of ‘Jack Ryan’ on Amazon Prime. Action (another genre).

Or, for even more confrontational action, riveting conversation, dramatic intrigue, with passionate speeches and soliloquys (a soliloquy being a speech no one is, theoretically, actually listening to) one could tune into the Impeachment Show; the hours of testimony and rebuttal tied together and relentlessly covered in whatever remains of each day by the commentators on and explainers of (because this is America, durn it) your choice.

Now, I have heard that some people read, like, poetry, short story collections, novels, or listen to them, or listen to podcasts. I’ve worked in a lot of weekend houses, and, evidently, based on every one of them being stocked with shelves of puzzles and board games, I have to believe some folks put together or play with whatever is in those boxes.

I don’t wish to judge what anyone else does in the privacy of his or her home; but whatever one does in hibernation season, I can only hope one does it joyously.

I have included the illustration I modified for use as a Christmas/Holiday (and I will defend the slash mark if pushed) card. Since we didn’t send too many of those out, it was modified again to be used as New Year’s cards.

It fits, however, so neatly as a Hibernation Season card, the tagline being: “If you can’t hibernate peacefully, celebrate joyously.”

If we were celebrating rain, joyously; whoa; we’d be so overjoyed.

It’s simple. Really.

ONE MORE THING: I wrote a fake “Cowboy Poetry” piece, actually mine being “Cowboy Fiction,” which I may be reading, along with a bit from my fake memoir, “Swamis,” at 6pm, Thursday, March 5th, Uptown Port Townsend.  We’ll see.  I’m currently about 40 some pages through a front to back edit of the currently 240 pages of “Swamis.” Working on it.