Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Around the Club House Turn

Winter solstice has passed, the saternalia is over and the sun will be travelling north a little further each day. It all means long, sunny days are just around the corner.

How do you picture the calendar year in your mind? In my mind's eye, I actually see it rather like an oval shaped race track with January and February at the top and July and August at the bottom. The months of March, June, September and December are all at the curves of the track, while October and November and April and May are along the sides.

I'm always happy when we "round the club house turn" where December sits and we head into the top of our calendar oval. It means, up here in the Pacific Northwest, that we are getting near the end of our winter. Sometimes in mid-January dear little snowdrops bravely show their faces and by February the green spears of daffodils are poking through the ground.

Those long, dark days of November and December are difficult to get through and it's easy to understand to some extent why our pagan ancestors living in northern climes instituted the Saturnalia to add some winter cheer. I often wonder if that is not what modern day winter festivals are all about.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Neutrogena Ageless Intensives Anti-wrinkle Deep Wrinkle Filler, 1-Ounce

As one of my hobbies, I'm an Amazon Vine Reviewer which means that they send me books to read prior to being released to the general public and, quite often, other products as well. I thought my review of the above item might interest some of my senior friends out there. I have published the following on Amazon:

It may be that I am asking for miracles here. There does come a time when one is past the point of no return and I think I'm there, unless I try injections and fillers.

I've tried this product now for two weeks and at least it has done no damage, which is great since I have extra senstive skin. There is a little bit of redness around the lip line but they tell you that will happen.

Let's face it. I've been a senior citizen for awhile now and I think no amount of applied creams will help everything. I do think the finer wrinkles are better and I will have to see how it goes in eight weeks for the deep wrinkles they call marionette lines. Stay tuned for more information in about a month and a half. In the meantime, I do feel it's a good product, so I'm giving it at least a four out of five stars.

Hope my readers find this analysis helpful. :)

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

No Excuses for Lazyness

So it's a long time since I wrote anything on here and that is just wrong. I suppose I could say it's because I'm a year older and getting lazy in my old age. But that's not good enough. I'll have to pull up my socks and try to do better.

However, it is true that at this age life has a habit of flying by. I remember when I was six or seven and in my early school years, those weeks until summer holidays just dragged by. They were interminable. Now it seems that the time between one summer and the next is gone in the blink of an eye. So I guess it's a matter of perspective and mathematics.

I have been busy though, reviewing books on Amazon and editing my own book a couple of times. And I've come to the conclusion that I will self-publish. I'm thinking that at my age I don't have time for the normal process. Sometimes it takes years to get an agent, then it takes months for them to sell it (if they ever do) and then it takes months for the publisher to publish it. I don't have that sort of time left. And with e-books self-publishing has become quite respectable.

I would like to get this book out to the public because it's an interesting time in history that has been mainly overlooked. So in January I hope to actually push the button that will put it out there. Will keep you "posted."