A blog post without an obituary - what a concept!

WATKINS GLEN, New York - The last five postings on this website have been to chronicle the passing of either a classmate or teacher.

Damn depressing.

And so it seemed like an entry that was, well, more upbeat, was in order. 

It sounded good in concept until the gray clouds over Seneca Lake started shoving down on my head, reminding me of growing up in Lakewood and how January and February were intolerably long months.

Intolerably.

When I left of California, Aug. 6, 1970, I traveled around the U.S. for two months and landed in Napa, Calif. That was before Napa got discovered and turned into its current incarnation of wine-snobbery and outrageously expensive living.  I stumbled on a chart that showed how many sunny days Napa has per year and compared it to how many sunny days Jamestown has.

You guessed it, Napa has as many sunny days as Jamestown has rain, snow, or simply that gray wall of clouds we used to watch coast by outside the SWCS classrooms. And that first California winter, as I barbecued steaks for New's Years day and sunburned my nose on a Valentine's Day boating trip, I also discovered that I had something called seasonal affective disorder. No wonder the gray of upstate New York winters was so depressing to me.

Of course, that's what prompted this brief blog. Here I am, 44 years later, looking out today on a snowy, gray landscape, a landscape that seems even more grim after Saturday's brilliant sunshine that was as fabulous as it was damn-near blinding as it reflected off the snow.

The weather forecast looks good for clear weather in a few days (after at least a few inches of snow accumulates), so I can be patient, a personal quality in short supply for me when we were banging around the halls of high school.

Keep healthy everybody. I prefer to report good news here... Like the news about Mike Coon...