...or, maybe...sometimes you feel like a nut...those words would, once again, date yours truly. Oh, well. This squirrel seemed to have found a veritable banquet in the branches of a pecan tree. The squirrel was spotted enjoying a snack while yours truly was on a walk one afternoon recently.

Please read this...Look...up in the tree...it's a bird...it's a...

Sigh. I finally broke down and made a winter coat a regular part of my daily attire.

To tell you the truth, I had put off such action as long as I could. A couple of mornings during the past week with frosty temperatures finally forced my chilly hand. The coat goes with the frost on the windshield of my car. Didn't see much of that in July.

Now, if we can believe the weather forecasts, we're in for an "arctic blast" or some such thing this week. By the time you get to read this, you may want to use the paper to start a fire to help keep you warm, unless you happen to be someplace where it's very warm.

Of course, the weather casters, weather persons, weather celebrities have been alerting us to the impending arrival of the cold. They sure like to make the whole situation quite dramatic, which seems rather odd. After all, it is December.

December means the days are getting shorter, all the way up to the 21st day of the month or so. Then, we can look forward to a little bit more sunshine, and, then, soon after, it will be time to get the lawn mower ready to go. Maybe I shouldn't rush things. 

I really was not ready for it to be cold. For one thing, the cold of winter makes it really, really hard for me to attempt to read a book on the front porch. I say "attempt" because such ventures often end in a nice little nap. I don't think that taking a nap out on our front porch would be much fun when the temperature is, say, 23 degrees.

I guess we'll just take what we get, as we get it, 'cause it's not like we can do much about what Mother Nature brings us anyway.

Meanwhile, let's take a look ahead at one other thing, too: call the picture you see this week a bit of a teaser of sorts. 

I'm not quite sure how it happened, but we're already down to the last couple of weeks in the Year of Our Lord 2016. 

Hope it's been a good year for you. Our year, at least up to the point this was being composed, has been, well, interesting.

For the past year or two, I've saved up my favorite photographs and various wild creatures, including squirrels, to share with you folks at the end of the year. 

As noted, this week's picture is kind of a teaser. And, it helps to fill up space, too, which is very important, because yet another deadline was fast approaching and I needed to get this wrapped up for the December 8 issue. Stay tuned for more...

The Gazette-Democrat

112 Lafayette St.
Anna, Illinois 62906
Office Number: (618) 833-2158
Email: news@annanews.com

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