SAD - Seasonal Affective Disorder

My Seasonal Affective Disorder is in full swing yet again. Although I try to ignore and rationalize things that happen, it is at this time of the year that I struggle a bit with the cold, the cloud cover and the lack of sunlight, the inability to get out and about, the boxed-in and abandoned feeling. I'll recover, after all the spring catalogs have arrived.

The purple finches have arrived and are using the sunflower oiler feeders. They remind me of the self red factor canaries I raised for several years. Clicking on photos will enlarge them.

Magical First Lights

I liked this early morning first light shot showing jet contrails. 

Then I accidentally took the second shot.

Through mid-January we'd had a mild winter, 

not too cold and very little snow as these shots show.

Yes, there was some snow-ice on Lake Huron but not much.

Then we got hit with an amazing cold snap and more snow 

than we'd seen all winter so far.

They say every cloud has a silver lining, 

well the viburnum berries show snow caps 

which are better than ice caps on the lake!

One of my puppies recently had her own puppies. On Friday the breeder told me she had one for me. I jumped at the chance and mailed her a check on Saturday expecting to pick up the pup in Monroe, Michigan sometime this week. On Sunday she reversed herself and decided to award the puppy to someone who asked for late Saturday or early Sunday. I'm crushed. Absolutely crushed.

The puppy I almost had.

A series of unfortunate events! It's funny how the pile up of seemingly little things chips away at you. Last March I took a couple of chairs into Hilton Upholstering in Ferndale, Michigan to be worked on. In June, several months later, the owner told me that he was not going to do them. Of course I wanted them back so that I could find another person to do them. Phone calls aren't answered nor messages responded to. Friends told me last summer that they would get them back for me for sure. Although they've talked to Wayne a few times, they have also failed to get those (expletive deleted) chairs. And the ravine work I had done last June? I finally, FINALLY got an invoice. I had ear marked the funds but they just sat in my checking account waiting for a bill. Normal business practices? SNAFU. My dogs have all been treated for Lyme disease - two pills a day each for thirty days. Now they've had the Lyme vaccine which is 80% effective and they wear Seresto collars that are supposed to discourage ticks, the vectors of Lyme, and fleas. I recently heard that someone is spreading stories about me that are at best a misinterpretation and at worst an outright lie about me and my dogs. I'm actually not surprised. When the fish starts to smell, it starts at the head. And our liar in chief has set the pattern. Nonetheless, the lies are incredibly hurtful especially when folks know the originator's history. And do not get me started on the stock market and banking, and politics. My social security actually went down this year. Why are we paying those folks for not doing their jobs and giving them the kinds of retirement and health benefits we should all have. How come a third of the population is in control of stuff. (I do believe, at least hope anyway, that things will work out in the end.)