Christopher Donahue

It is five days before  Christmas.  After a very busy few weeks leading up to the holiday, I can finally start to relax a bit and look forward to taking the week off between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Most of my shopping is done and our holiday cards are in the mail.

The wooden  stairs out back creaked under my weight as I went down them this morning. It was a reminder, like I needed one, that it was twenty degrees out. Winter is getting underway and there is still a chance of a a white Christmas.

And following tradition, I wore a red dress shirt with a green neck tie. Tomorrow will be vice versa: green shirt, red tie. It my little way of observing the season and spreading some Christmas cheer.

And it also reminds me to engage with the season before the Yuletide passes me by!

copyright 2021 Christopher Donahue

One would think Monday the 13th would have a terrible reputation. How could two things so bad be together and not widely groused about in the public consciousness?

And that’s what I was thinking about getting ready for work this morning.

I was also thinking about how I need to make an effort to engage with the Christmas season. It is hard to believe December is zipping by so fast and it will be over soon whether I celebrate it or get distracted by life.

I put my coffee down , patted Quiet Rustle on the head and went out the door ready spread Christmas cheer. Because Christmas is  like everything else: the more you put into it, the more you get out!

Ho ho ho everyone and Merry Christmas!

It will be January before we know it!

copyright 2021 Christopher Donahue

It is the very end of November. Thanksgiving is over and all the leaves are down.  Nature is getting ready for winter.  And, out in the back yard, I debate whether to rake those leaves  or not! Sometimes, the leaves are better left on the ground for insulating plants.

For some reason, it is important to me that I document how tough a year it was for my tomatoes. I think of this as I pull up he frost shriveled plants. Too much rain.   All summer long. Extraordinary, record setting amounts of rain.  I probably harvested a third of what I usually get from ten tomatoes plants.

Oh well. Spring is only four-and-a-half months away!

Copyright 2021 Christopher Donahue

Monday again. My wife and I were driving to work on a cool and crisp November morning. The early sun and beautiful autumn leaves were dazzling and had us in an upbeat mood. My wife shared with me how her co-worker  has a  problem. Apparently , this co-worker  belongs to a walking group. Recently, a new woman who talks-too-much joined the group. My wife asked my thoughts on how the co-worker should confront this talkative walker who is upsetting their ambulatory serenity.

So, I shared my thoughts about what the coworker should do with this person who talks too much. Then, I shared my thoughts about the recent New England Patriots victory over Carolina Panthers.  I followed that up with my thoughts on a diplomat who was recently pushed out of a window at the Russian embassy in London. I finished with how the weather is going for the rest of the week.

We pulled up at my wife’s place of work to start getting out of the car. She looked disconcerted, troubled. I asked her if she were OK.

She said she was fine. It was just that I talked her ear off the whole ride  to work. She couldn’t get  a word in the entire ride.

I had no idea I had this problem!!!

copyright Christopher Donahue 2021

Mondays are always a tough start. There’s a lot of inertia to overcome. A body at rest wants to stay at rest, of course.

And a body on the weekend, wants to stay on the weekend!

But alas, I must suit up and head out. Unfortunately, not only is the weekend over so is summer. Now, I know summer ended on the calendar a month ago.  But we’ve been enjoying some nice warm weather since then.

Yet, this morning is looking pretty gloomy– literally! I look out the window with a cup of steaming coffee in my hand and Quiet Rustle my cat and by my side. We are both appalled with this morning’s weather!

Outside, it is 50 degrees with a cold driving rain that is supposed to go all day.   Welcome to New England. This will turn to snow in a couple months and then back to rain. But for all intents and purposes, this is going to be the weather forecast until approximately mid-June of 2022!

But there’s nothing I can do about the weather so I might as well get going anyways.

Time to get this body in motion!

copyright 2020 Christopher Donahue

It’s early Monday morning and I’m enjoying my first cup of coffee while relaxing in my bathrobe and big woolen socks. I’m looking at my cat, Quiet Rustle, who is looking back at me. We are both listening to the radio.  The news program has gotten to the familiar segment known as “traffic on the threes.”

As we sit there, comfortably starting our week, we listen to the various traffic jams afflicting the region.   It sounds like everybody’s having a bad time going to work. Except me and my cat.   But I haven’t left for work yet. And that’s the problem.

I have resumed working at the office downtown. Unfortunately, thousands of my closest friends have also resumed working downtown.   So, it is time to pick my poison.   Do I drive in to work and deal with the traffic?  Or do I take the train and deal with the breakdowns and lousy service.

I look at Quiet Rustle and he looks at me.

Time for another cup of joe.

Copyright 2021 Christopher Donahue

It was one of the last weekend’s of the summer, and we were driving through the Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont.  Earlier,  we had dinner with old friends we hadn’t seen in person since before the pandemic. It was a nice evening.   And there was a hint of Fall in the air as we drove up through the mountains in a cold rain.

The night seem darker than usual beyond the glaring beams of our headlights. We crossed over the peak and headed downhill into Wardsboro. I was driving, and talking to my wife, when suddenly, a giant white flash burst from the tree canopy in front of us and almost crashed through the windshield! It all happens in a nanosecond.

It was an owl!   Somehow, I managed to hit the breaks and swerve a bit but to try to avoid hitting the owl. The owl swerved too and together it was enough to avoid a crash.

Then it was gone.  It must have been diving down on a mouse of something crossing the road and not see our car coming.

We continued on the road, looking through the cone of our bright headlights with the glittering raindrops falling amidst the blackness. Almost as a shadow,  I saw a deer standing on the side of the road.   The only witness to this near fatal encounter.

We drove the rest of the way uneventfully and stayed the evening at a bed and breakfast.

I will be forever grateful I didn’t hurt that owl.

copyright 2021 Christopher Donahue

Summer was winding down. It was one of the last Mondays of the season  and I took the day off.  And the early morning weather was perfect.

I sat on my front steps sipping coffee and watching the world go to work. Traffic was backed up from the corner light and I could see all the people in their cars ready to go to work. They were all dressed up, most likely showered, smelling nice and rarin’ to go!

I was right out of bed, barefoot,wearing gym shorts and a t-shirt . My coffee was holding out.

Monday had left me behind. It and the rest of the world were getting on without me.

And that was a good thing!

copyright 2021 Christopher Donahue

It rained again. And it rained. It rained and rained and rained.

Rained again.

Oftentimes more than once a day.  To break your spirit.   Make you think it stopped.

It was the summer of rain.

We get rain in the morning and afternoon, rain in the evening, rain in the nighttime. There is rain before the sun comes up,  rain when the sun goes down.   And, of course  so much rain you can’t tell IF the sun is going up or down.

It has been one long, wet summer.   Apparently, the only way out is to…

Let it snow!!!

copyright 2021 Christopher Donahue