Wow, what a contrast in January! Temperatures down to near 0 degrees and now we are right at 65 degrees just days later.

Like everyone, we left faucets dripping and continuously checked for frozen pipes and leaks. Thankfully we had neither. I hope you were as lucky.

January is more than half over and we should only have maybe 8-10 more weeks of winter and then glorious spring will arrive ushered in by March’s gusty winds.

I’m ready.

Spring always signifies renewal and change and exercise and outdoors. I love the fragrant budding plants and trees.

I am also a seasonal cook. In the winter we have more soups and stews and one-dish meals. This spring we will begin to grill out and have more fresh vegetables to go along with the grilled meals. We eat lighter and healthier in the spring on the promise of shedding a few unwanted pounds we have added during our near-hibernation winters.

We will watch less television and stay up until dark. Occasionally we will wander outside after dark to gaze up at a full moon or to enjoy a meteor shower.

We will drag the telescope out and try for hours on the weekend to find something in the scope, and then as always give up and drag it back in to its corner in the den where it will stay until fall when we will forget how hard it is to focus and drag it out again.

Eternal optimist or just plain stupid? I don’t know.

The beginning of each New Year gives us all pause for reflection and attempts at resolutions for things we would like to change about our lives or ourselves. This year I have vowed no resolutions for 2010. It’s not that I don’t have things I would like to change but the list is so vast and so long that I am surely defeated before I start.

Magazine ads and television commercials are constantly telling me that my skin is too wrinkled and my hair is too gray. And that I need to tone up and my wardrobe is laughable and my life is miserable. Then they tout all sorts of ways for me to shape up, fix up and wash away the gray.

There are 10 instant stress busters, and 35 comfort foods; 157 ways to decorate and celebrate. Just a little Botox here and there and a little nip and tuck and I will be as fresh as a crocus in the snow.

There are tips on how to “trick yourself into spending less and saving more.” Tips on how to “clean your fridge the good enough way.” You can learn how to upscale shop with budget prices and see the 110 hottest guys on the planet.

Oprah tells you how to be the best you can be and Dr. Phil tells us to always fight fair and leave your opponent with some dignity. I say what’s the point in fighting if you have to do all that. And to Oprah I have to say this is the best me you’re going to get. The best me I’ve been in years. Still a long way away from great or even good but the best me there is. Besides if you have gazillions of dollars like Ms. Oprah, you can pretty much tell people anything and they’ll listen.

You get the picture.

(Contact Sherry at swhcsc@wildblue.net)