Deadlines loom and ideas flee
Kay James
Kay James, Kay's Comments
Deadline for this column is approaching, and my mind is blank. Is it a temporary writer’s block? Have I finally run out of writing material and will find anything interesting to write about again?
More likely, the lack of a good subject is simply a temporary affliction and will disappear as soon as I get busy trying to write a column, like now.
The weather could have something to do with this. With the weather so grey and dismal, I think I am already suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder, also known as SAD. It affects people, especially those who live in northern climates, with an onset of depression during the winter months. People do not get enough sunlight and vitamin D so they become depressed. SAD is serious in that severe cases can lead to suicide.
Since October’s sunlight seemed to be measured in hours rather than days, many people may have early symptom of this malady. I feel like I missed fall and went straight to early winter. I hardly noticed the trees turning because the sun was always behind a cloud or it was foggy so that the colors did not create any awesome appreciation for nature this year.
Now, the calendar has turned to November, and winter will not be long in coming. I never look forward to winter.
I was reminded of winter while hunting for column subject matter. In reading newspapers, some of my best sources, I read an article in USA Today warning about “peephole” driving. Reporter Larry Copeland describes it this way, “Many Americans have done it: gone outside to an ice-covered vehicle on a cold winter’s morning, chipped just enough ice off the windshield to see through and driven away.” He goes on to interview police officers in different states about the increase in peephole driving and the dangers of doing so. Some states are passing new laws prohibiting it.
I do not do that in the morning, because I have a nice garage to keep the car in during the winter. I am sorely tempted to do it when I leave work after a day of snowstorms or freezing rain. Having a car out in freezing rain encases the entire vehicle in a thin sheet of ice. Snow is easier to remove, but often has ice on the windshield because I went out for lunch or on an assignment, heated the car up and then parked it in our lot where more snow fell on it.
One officer in suburban Chicago said people do it because they are in a hurry and that puts others at risk. I know I prefer to be home rather than standing out in the cold scraping every last bit of snow and ice off the car.
While thinking about writing a column, I also thought about writing about Halloween. However, I did not don a costume for Halloween, even though we had a little costume contest at work. I am not the creative type who can come up with anything new and unusual.
I cannot say much about the trick or treaters who came to the house — only two. I ran out Saturday afternoon and bought candy. I am glad I had some for the two who did show up. They got big handfuls. However, now the candy is calling me to eat it.
When I was a child and even when my son was young, we had more trick or treaters in the neighborhood. I think the children now go into town where you can collect more candy in a shorter period.
Also, I notice that these days, children come in their parents cars. Back in my day, no self-respecting costumed child on Halloween would want their parents to drive them around the neighborhood. Having parents drive you eliminates the trick part. I confess that I and my brother and sister were the ones who soaped the neighbors’ windows when they did not answer the door on Halloween. We also soaped the stop signs in the neighborhood and the windows on my uncle’s implement shop.
Walking the dark country roads was spooky. We did not need to go to a haunted house, because just the trick or treat route was enough to scare us. Moreover, one year, we had a neighbor who really freaked us out. We stopped at his house and got some candy. We went back into the night and were a ways past his house when suddenly we heard a loud boom. We took off running with candy flying out of sacks. We ran a ways and then realized it was just a firecracker. Monsters were not after us. We did not go back to pick up the candy we lost.
With that vignette, my column has reached its maximum word length, and I can go watch a mindless television show.
Kay Lapp James is editor of the Wisconsin Dells Events. Contact her at wde-editorial@capitalnewspapers.com or phone (608) 254-8327, ext. 3567.