I know it seems silly, but my Mom used to talk about what a big difference it made when we “flipped the calendar” from October to November. October was fall, and November was winter, that’s how simple it was, right?

Don’t just say “well it’s only you, Rod” because I have proof. First, I am still one of those folks who has a calendar that hangs on the wall. To be a little more precise, I also have a calendar on my work desk. Yep, call me old fashioned, but having a watch or a cell phone that simply changes from 31 to 1 (October 31st to November 1st) just does not seem sufficient, especially when you add the months into the mix.
I know for sure folks, that there are still a few of us left that not only value a printed calendar but rely on the calendar to define the time of year. Take my calendar from the North Dakota Outdoors magazine. October’s photo is a very wet , cold looking mink, standing on an ice shelf, near what appears to be an iced over slough. Ice certainly means cold. But turn the page to November and there is a photo of 2 deer standing in a snowy field. One glance reminds me that a weather change is certainly imminent, and that it’s November and of course November 7th is the start of deer hunting season in North Dakota. It’s referred to as a North Dakota holiday. Even if we all aren’t deer hunters, try to conduct business on that day…it’s almost impossible as no one is in the office. Skip December, because it’s Christmas, a feel good month no matter what the weather is. Now on to January where there is very lonely looking mouse standing in a blustery, snow covered scene. No need to go any further, it just plain looks cold.

I have several other calendars, and some of them are not quite so artistically definitive, but what is consistent is that seems to be fall, and November is winter.

I also think that unfortunately calendars are kind of a generational thing. In our house there is the calendar in the kitchen that has all of our important dates like birthdays, anniversaries, first and last day of school (now for the grandkids), as well as doctor and dentist appointments, and well, pretty much everything important to the operation of the Wilson household. But, having just spent time at my son’s home in California, I looked for a calendar to see when Memorial Day was in 2026 so I could give my son a definitive date when our sailboat would normally be launched. You guessed it…no calendar in site. I could live with looking up random dates on my cell phone, but I don’t know a lot of people who have detailed calendars with all of those family driven dates on their cell phone. Yeah, I know, Facebook. But I have missed a lot of dates that were on Facebook because I “just didn’t open Facebook today.”

I might be a bit of a dinosaur when it comes to printed calendars, and I admit that weakness. But I also know a lot of my friends who are in the business world who completely trust an administrative assistant to keep their calendars. They are quick to point out that it is “the only way this office operates.”

Where is all of this leading to folks? We are only a couple of weeks away from November, and November is the start of winter, although I can remember clearing 2 feet of snow from my sidewalks so that the neighbor kids could trick or treat at my house. The start of winter can mean thinking about changing from summer to winter tires on your vehicle. It can mean changing oil and getting your snow blower ready to roll. It means putting away the gardening tools and digging out the snow shovels. Come to think of it, I’ll stick with my belief that a simple turn of the calendar page certainly defines the coming change of seasons…and what happens when all of the calendars are gone?

Final Thoughts
People are telling me that the squirrels are really active storing nuts, which means it will be a long, harsh winter. Ok, I’ll go with that forecast because the Farmer’s Almanac is also predicting a very snowy and cold winter. Sorry folks, I am afraid the odds are not good for a warmer winter without much snow.

Today’s Chuckle
A long time ago, “the good old days” were called “these trying times.”