My neighbor’s Mexican tile roof shines in bright relief against a darkening sky.  Has Old Man Winter cast a glance westward? The temperature has dropped to 66 degrees. I hear you laughing. In Buffalo, New York, rooftops piled six feet high with snow threaten to collapse so I’m not complaining.

We went to the store to buy warm clothes for our Thanksgiving trek to Arkansas. I’m counting on my theory that not many people will fly East on Thanksgiving Day, not this year. I’m hoping we will both have an empty row.  What a relief that will be.

We won’t get to our mom’s in time to eat turkey with her, but for the next few days we will have as much holiday fun as a person can have in a small rural town in the chilly Ozarks; dinner at the diner, caroling in the caves, porch or parlor setting while the town makes music over on Courthouse Square. (One does not sit, one sets for these occasions, the difference being you stay in your chair until you grow roots.) When we return, I will fulfill one of my New Year’s resolutions a month early. 

I’m picking up my new MacBook Air and installing a daunting Learn Scrivener Fast tutorial. I am resolved to become a master of my technology, able to leap tall building blocks of e-publication. That is a requirement of writers who must put something out there after the bloom is off the last novel, and before the next book is ready for its shy debut.

It’s risky behavior, but I plan to ditch Windows and MS Office. I am going all the way.  January’s calendar is full. I am speed dating Apple technicians in a series of 1:1 sessions. I will force them to divulge the mysteries of Evernote and the location of secret templates allow me to make simple book covers for works in progress without getting anywhere near Adobe Acrobat.

By February I hope to be full control of my files and work processes. I’m going cold turkey off multiple platforms.  (I’m too embarrassed to tell you how many old computers I have lying around the house that I still use. They are all talking to each other in the cloud, and I have no idea what they are saying. That is going to stop.)

One iPhone, one iPad, one MacBook, all with the same operating system, and a reduced set of apps; I am drinking the Kool-Aid.  I’m going to face my syncing fear of the iCloud. Right now all my stuff is synced tighter than a Gordian knot. I am lost in a maze meant to undo me, but I am taking the sword by the hilt and cutting it all to a manageable size.

First though, I am going to Arkansas to give grandma her annual two pound box of See’s candy and a book of Christmas mysteries (Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop).  We will set a spell:

Joel in his woolies

And I in my Uggs

All settled down

Happy as slugs.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

This Thanksgiving I wish you relief from whatever has you tied up in knots, the burdens you carry, any chill you may be feeling. I pray you will find a warm spot to sit and put your feet up and feel a moment of blessing.

photo credit: Philerooski via photopin cc