I’m pretty sure that a lot of people are settling down about now, not only because the colder winter weather keeps us quieter indoors, but also because this is the cycle where many of us sit back to pay off the holiday charge card bills.  Usually nothing helps except for the lack of a social life and cutting back on shopping this time of year. But have you seen the price of gas? As I watch the news they say it hasn’t been this low for many years, and these low prices are going to hold for a while. If only I can put the money saved on gas against my charge card, I’ll be doing good.

Because gas is so cheap right now, already I’m thinking of my summer and driving to Portland for the annual OCW writers conference. I can do that on two tanks of gas, so my mental calculator is already working.

I don’t think January is too early to start thinking about summer vacation. I think the only thing that it’s really too early to think about is next Christmas.

Yet, many people in my neighborhood still have their Christmas lights up, and I think it’s very pretty.

I think people should change the lights to red, and we can just call them Valentine lights.