Texas Weather

As a Deep South gal, never having lived above the thirty-fourth degree north latitude, I'm enjoying my icicles and the long weekend freeze we are set to experience. By Sunday our high should exceed freezing. But it won't be until Thursday before both our high temps and our low ones top that critical thirty-two-degree mark. Per the most recent info on weather.com.

I'm lucky. I'm one of the DFW residents who has heat, electricity, Internet, with food and water to last throughout this cold spell. I do have a huge forked tree limb down that the weather pruned for me overnight. Funny, it was from one of the trees losing its fall-colored leaves, not any from the many evergreens I have in my yard.

So if you don't hear from me later today, you'll know probably what happened.

We had sleeting rain yesterday, starting earlier than forecasted at about 1:00 p.m. here. We had more early this morning about 6:00 a.m. when I first woke. I can see about three inches of accumulation on my neighbor's roof. But in the empty large flower pot on my patio, about seven inches' worth is in there.

I'm guessing of course. I'm not opening my outer doors to let out my heat nor to let in the cold. Although once dawn came, I did exit from my garage to inspect my broken tree limb. Strangely it felt warmer earlier this morning than it did about 9:00 a.m. yesterday when I ran to the grocery store for provisions. Maybe it is because there is no wind at this time.

It is not unusual for us here in Texas to get a blast of winter early. I once had a person ask me when the Texas summer ended, having just moved to our great state. Someone had erroneously told him that August cools off here. Nope. Not hardly. I've found we don't have temps below 101 until after Labor Day. Then we can usually expect eighty degrees for Halloween so the kiddos in their plastic suits are not going to be comfortable. Afterward there is always the chance that our first snow of the two later seasons will occur on Thanksgiving. Or you could wear shorts. It's a toss-up.

Once we have that first blasting preview of winter, later when it's officially become that season, it warms up a bit. Just to keep us on our toes. And to prevent boredom from consistent weather patterns. Ha!

I love Texas.

I have another CP from New York originally who is trying to fly out of DFW International Airport into her home state. Not looking good at either end right now. I hope she gets to visit her family.

Stay warm, folks.

Denise Barker, author + blogger + copy editor

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http://denisebarkerauthor.blogspot.com/

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C. C. MacKenzie is Famous in Sweden

C. C. MacKenzie is a fellow author although across the pond--living in England but born in Scotland (forgive me, C.C., if I have this wrong). I met her on a shared online writing community and she is "a hoot and a half" as we say here in Texas.

Anyway, her latest post is a happy tearjerker (all of hers showcase her wicked sense of humor) and I just have to share it with authors everywhere. For in this one, C.C. finds out she is famous for the first time.

What a thrill!

I look forward to my own such experience.

Plus, as I said in my comment to her post, her life is just way more interesting than mine on a daily basis. So I live vicariously through her. And my book characters.

Here's C.C.'s link:

http://ccmackenzie.wordpress.com/2012/10/13/what-do-you-do/

P.S. Copy editor disclaimer here: Per CMS16 Rule 8.4, periods follow initials representing names with a space in between, unless the initials are used without a last name--then periods remain, but no space is needed in the middle of the two. Note that C.C.'s covers and blog posts reflect no punctuation for her use of "CC" and I think that is her particular preference. Were it not for the two huge publishers I freelance for and our strict adherence to The Chicago Manual of Style and this public forum, I would go along with her preferred spelling.

Denise Barker, author + blogger + copy editor

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

Annie Potts

I'm an ardent follower of Annie Potts.  Loved her in Ghostbusters.  Enjoyed her in Designing Women.  Totally adore her in GCB.  At first, I thought she wasn't old enough to have a 36-ish TV daughter.  If Amanda left as a pregnant senior in High School to marry Bill, she was probably the usual age of eighteen.  Plus if she moved away from her mother for another eighteen years as the show states a couple times (but "hasn't seen her in eight years"), then Amanda is thirty-six.  If her mother was twenty when she had her, then Gigi would have to be at least fifty-six.

Come to find out Annie Potts is fifty-nine.  And what a beauty at any age--regardless if she is knocking on sixty.

In GCB, Gigi gets some bad press.  Wanting to send off unwed pregnant Amanda to Gigi's sister in New Orleans, only to have the baby and then give it up, is not being supportive.  Harsh even.

HOWEVER, in the TV script, Gigi lost her husband to death at around the same time Amanda left Dallas and her mom.  Eighteen years ago.  So Gigi was handling both, plus an abrupt empty nest.  The TV series hasn't yet delved into Gigi's past on these points.  But I have to admire her as Amanda attacks her again on the adoption issue from years ago.  Gigi stands proud.  She's not giving into guilt--which would be easy to do.  Plus, useless.  Nonproductive.

And like any story, there are two sides.  I look forward to seeing an episode that explains more about what Gigi went through back then.

BTW, I have not yet read the book, so the series is unfolding as I see it on Hulu.

Another episode is coming on ABC tonight--Yeehaw!

Anticipation

Yesterday--the official first day of Fall--I was hit with a Christmas-cheer boatload batch of anticipation.  I don't know what specifically brought it, but there are the usual suspects:  God in His Heaven, sowing and reaping at work, a taste of fall when we here in the DFW Metroplex have had, it seems like, one hundred days (not all in a row) of drought and triple-digit heat that could frazzle more than a couple nerves.

I think that is why God created the seasons.  One of our basic needs as humans is variety.  Thus, the seasons.  Although this year, after that summer we just had here in Texas, I am really, really looking forward to having a full season of fall.  However, if you have ever lived in the Lone Star State throughout all four seasons, you know we're not usually dosed with three months of autumn.  Hopefully, this year is different.   We've had a monster winter, a windy spring and one burner of a summer.  Shouldn't it follow that we get a full-fledged fall?  I hope so.

Anyway, my anticipation symptoms include:  I'm filled with housecleaning energy, with a less workaholic outlook (that's a good thing from this workaholic on overdrive for the last few decades), wanting to cook more, wanting to sit out on the patio with a cup of coffee and just sit and contemplate life more, and on and on it goes.

I'm still looking for the great . . . something . . . that all the cells in my body are waiting for with awesome anticipation.

So, here's wishing that happy expectation on each of you.  Let me know what yours was.  I'm curious.  After all, I am the creative author type.