Flipping a switch

     Winter came to Durango like Mother Nature's alarm clock didn't work, and when she woke up she flipped the old seasonal switch.  Climbing dry rock in a t-shirt and running in shorts turned overnight to ice climbing and skiing.  It snowed more or less for three days, and now the extended warm, dry fall seems like a dream. 
     Every year the transition to winter seems to get harder for me.  I still enjoy winter and its respective activities, but I just can't keep pace with the apparent enthusiasm of so many others.  There is a disconnect with the natural cycles of the seasons that becomes more obvious with the shorter days.  Work still starts and ends at the same times.  Almost no consideration is given to the shorter duration of daylight, the colder temps, the extra effort to travel.  I want to sleep more, take my time getting going, and generally conserve my energy.  It seems everyone around me is better at the technologically derived ability to ignore natural cycles and get on with life as "usual".  An old friend that I worked with in Steamboat once said that the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS lyric, "Stuck inside of a parallel universe..." reminded him of me.  Sounds about right. 
     The other night I went to a holiday party at a friends house.  I had not seen the guy in a few months, and it reminded me that I'm very lucky to have the friends that I do. Sometimes I go into hibernation and no one sees me for a while.  That I am fortunate enough that my friends call me up and and carry on as if no time has passed is a gift I am grateful for.  A few of these friends just got shut down in the Hardrock lottery.  I got in.  At least a few people probably deserve to be in the run more than I do.  But, like Clint Eastwood said in Unforgiven, "Deserve's got nothin' to do with it."  I joke that my incredible luck with the Hardrock lottery is due to a deal with the Devil.  Which is funny, at least to me, because in no way do I believe in that sort of simplistic battle of good and evil.  Things just happen because of an incredibly complex interwoven series of events.  Or maybe it's the ritual sacrifice to the Pagan God Pan?  I'll let you be the judge.
     Don't forget this Friday the 21st, is the winter Solstice. The real reason for the season. 
Enjoy the gathering light.

E.D.  looking super solid, as usual