Are you tired of winter?

eagle

I know I am

Hello and welcome to February!

Living in St. Louis as like I do, our winters are often gray and overcast. Even if it’s not raining or snowing, it feels as if the sun is nowhere to be found. Worse, I’m recovering from the actual influenza, which needed a round of Tamiflu (thankfully it worked).

On a happier note, I noticed the pinks of the morning sky on my way to work, so the days are finally getting longer. I get seasonal affective disorder and winter seriously depresses me, which is one reason I had to get out of the house the other day.

My July release, The Playboy Project, centers on the idea of an environmental consultant who’s called to the St. Louis area to solve a dilemma regarding an eagle’s nest. So I took myself up to the Mississippi River at Alton to see if I could spot some, and I did.at dark blob over to the left is the eagle. It’s hard to tell from the ground whether it’s a male or female eagle, and I needed binoculars in order to see it clearly, and my phone obviously didn’t do a good job. But it was a sunny day, and I was near the water, and I needed that break.

So it seemed, did a lot of people. Some actually went out and stood on the ice by the Melvin Price Lock and Dam. I’m not sure I’d be brave enough to try that. While I jumped off a bridge into the Big River once (everyone was doing it), my sense of safety is much stronger these days than at 18.

But it was incredible to see the slough that frozen solid. still a bit under the weather, but it’s 60 degrees as I write this, so I’m going to get outside again for a bit. Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter, and I’m already over it.