We react to the day, and respond accordingly

"Wishes lengthen as our sun declines."

– Edward Young


Cold is funny.

I was taking my mother-in-law to get her hair done last week and she didn't like the looks of things as we walked to my car.

It was cold, maybe a faint mist in the air, just chilly and unpleasant.

She commented on this with disapproval and I quietly agreed while turning up the heater fan and pointing a vent in her direction.

An hour later I picked her up and the weather wasn't mentioned. She didn't even zip up her jacket as she crossed the parking lot and got in. I turned off the fan.

There had been little change in the temperature over the past 60 minutes, but there was this – the sun had come out.

That made all the difference.

I had noticed it myself. Earlier in the day, I had darted into the grocery to get a few items. I was wearing a shirt, a hooded sweatshirt and a heavy jacket, zipped. I also had on a hat, gloves and a scarf.

Everyone else I saw heading to and from the grocery entrance was similarly dressed, all of us passengers for the Polar Express.

In the afternoon I returned to the grocery because someone had forgot to mention a need for sweet salad cubes. It was still cold, but it was sunny. I saw people strolling to and from the door in T-shirts. I saw a mom in a sweatshirt but she was walking hand-in-hand toward the store with a coatless child who seemed in no hurry.

The sun makes all the difference. We seem to see its warmth, more than feel it.

REALLY STRANGE: I was driving down the road on one of our modest not major streets when I saw what looked like a fat, round bird just ahead, lightly riding the breeze about 30 feet up.

I really thought it was a bird, too. It would dip a little, make an adjustment, then swing slightly to one side or another.

You know how they do when you go the beach. Like air surfing.

When I came to a stop sign, I got a better look at this gray glider and realized I had been watching a plastic grocery bag, acting like a beach bird.

TODAY'S JOKE: The village blacksmith finally found an apprentice willing to work hard for long hours.

The blacksmith immediately began his instructions to the lad, "When I take the shoe out of the fire, I'll lay it on the anvil; and when I nod my head, you hit it with this hammer."

The apprentice did just as he was told. Now he's the village blacksmith.