Changes are a coming'

Hi neighbors. This year it looks like another weekly winter -- winter weather one week followed by spring weather the next week. This is tolerable to me. I can move my schedule around to just drive my car every other week. I can buy two weeks worth of groceries on one shopping trip.

Even people who still work every day can chip ice for a couple of days knowing they will have the next week in the 40 or 50 degree range.

People who have heated garages don't know what they are missing in winter. For several decades I endured putting on the coat, mittens, scarf, hat, and boots just to go out, shovel a path to the car, throw hot water on the car door opening to unfreeze the lock, scrape off window ice, start the motor and turn on the defrosters. Then it was come back inside the house, take off the outerwear and finish that last cup of coffee.

When the ice started sliding down the windshield, the heater was working enough to put on all the winter apparel again and head to work. And many times this was all done in the dark, and had to be repeated at work before sliding out of the parking lot to come home.

Although I get tired of achy joints from arthritis, constantly monitoring my sugar intake and diabetes medication, cutting out anything fried in my diet to control my cholesterol, never shaking a salt shaker again to pacify my blood pressure and squinting at everything to see around my cataracts; old age has one thing going for it -- no scraping a car to go to work! The trade off is pretty much even in my opinion.

I've always been grateful that Missouri has so far, not had several feet of snow where cars actually disappear under the snow! At least I've always been able to find my car each time I needed it.

Actually, this area of the nation seems pretty calm year round, except for the tornadoes that is. And as bad as they are, tornadoes don't bring the ocean along to flood you out like hurricanes do on the coasts.

It seems we are determined to die off from one problem or another. If global warming doesn't cook us, or the next mini-ice age doesn't freeze us, just the axis of the planet shifting will surely do us in!

In times past it has been different. While doing my genealogy research I discovered that my two times great-grandparents were married in 1835 during the coldest winter in decades. History says that cattle froze to death in the pastures that winter. So I guess moving to Missouri from Tennessee might have seemed like a bad idea that winter. I hope it doesn't get that cold again!

If you attended the Inauguration on the 20th, I hope the weather was comfortable. Another president -- the 45th -- was sworn into the office of United States President. President Trump is going into office at 70 years of age and with no political experience other than running for office.

Each time we get a new president, people feel some trepidation. Those who did not vote for them hope they are not as evil as their rivals painted them during the election. Those who did vote for them hope they live up to the promises they made during election.

Let's face it -- it's all a roll of the dice. Unless they have already served a term as president, how could you possibly know what's in store for you? Has no candidate noticed all presidents come out of office looking 20 years older than when they were inaugurated?

It is a difficult job on an easy day and an impossible one in a crisis. Let's all hope President Trump has what it takes to survive the physical demands of the office.

Until the next time folks stay warm, stay optimistic and keep your eyes open and directed toward Washington.