Happy New Year from Columbus, Mississippi!

Or...Wringing the Neck of 2016

For me, 2016 was a sea change year. It was for Cliff, as well, but as of yet, things haven't finished working out for him. His house is still up for sale, his parents have moved to Rosebud, Texas, where they reportedly love it. They now live out in the country, the Hill Country of Texas, which is an important distinction from most of the rest of Texas.

I never dreamed that I would ever own property, but especially a home. That was the major development for me, actually buying a house, closing on it in April, and moving into it in May. All the rest of the blogs in this site have been about living here. With the new year, I'd like to look forward. I feel certain that Cliff will sell his house and that his own move to Columbus will come about. But I can't do much from here to help him out, so he's busy, and the best we can do is talk to each other every day.

I will be busy here in Columbus in the new year. I've got possible clients lined up for my editorial evaluations, the three books I published as ebooks in 2016 will be published as hard copy books in 2017. In fact, the covers are done and waiting to be sized to the format of the hard-copy books.

I look forward to continuing to work with the other writers I've met, here in Columbus, mainly through the writers' group I joined in June of 2016. And I will be attending my first ever book reading from a Columbus, Mississippi writer. I ordered one of his books too late to read it for the reading.

I'm finally going to get the outside of my house (aluminum siding) power-washed, which should remove the accumulated grunge and stains from the vines that had been growing on the house for several years. In fact, I spent a great deal of time in the fall digging up those vine roots and pulling them out from behind the siding, as well as getting rid of the foliage in one of the front flower beds (roots and all). I'm going to let it go to grass and just leave a few nice shrubs against the wall. One of the major cleanups in 2016 was getting all the overhanging tree branches cut off. They'll be back, but I had to cut back several years of neglect and overgrowth when I moved in.

I know...Ellie-Mae look longingly outdoors.

My twin calicoes will turn one-year old in March of 2017—and maybe their growth rate will slow down. At nine months old, they seem to be as big as bobcats, but I suppose that's an exaggeration. In August, when I had them spayed, they only weighed 4 pounds each. I'm sure they weigh twice that now. When I'm lying on my stomach, Ellie will climb onto my back, and kind of massages it, and it feels like an adult human masseuse working the kinks out of my muscles. Mae climbs onto my legs or feet and her sheer weight clamps me to the bed. (Not really on either of these accounts but it's almost true.)

By the time winter is over in March, I will have lived through all four seasons, here in Mississippi. Just like everywhere else I have ever lived, locals say something similar: if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes and it will change. But it is rainy here, compared to the desert—except this past summer Mississippi was in a drought and the desert got more than the usual amount of rain. But the rain is back, now, and I understand that winter is one of the rainiest seasons, here.

The video below is an interview with Richard Grant who was originally from England, then New York, and finally Mississippi in the Delta. Look for Dispatches from Pluto.