Listing My Way

Thanks to Bish Denham and Alex J. Cavanaugh as they host the first ever 'listing' blog hop. The Listing Blog Hop celebrates eight years of blogging for Bish and a bunch of us are helping her celebrate by sharing a list of anything. The list should be between 5 and 25 items long.

I don't make lists of favorite movies, TV shoes, bands or foods though I enjoy reading what others think. Often that gives me new ideas of things to watch, listen to or try. My lists are always of things to do and always about my writing. I actually buy small tablets just for this purpose and make a new list every Sunday. I make myself feel better by checking off things I've accomplished. This past week I did all of them except for one. But that list is boring and meant only for me.

If you've read my blog over the past few years, you know how much I despise winter. I complain (okay, I whine) about it frequently over the course of the cold dark months. So, I'm going to try and list my winter issues today and then maybe I won't repeat them over and over again later. But I probably will.

*Winter is cold! I hate being cold. Give me sweltering temperatures any day.
*Snow and ice. Sure, they look pretty on the trees, but one has to be shoveled and the other makes the world a dangerous place.
*The heating bill goes way, way up. We hit a record for one month last winter when we had so many sub-zero nights.
*The hours of daylight are very, very short. Still dark when you rise in the morning and it's dark again before dinner.
*It's basketball season. Don't get me wrong, I played basketball in high school and all my boys played, but I can't stand to watch it for hours on TV. But my husband can!
*No swimming pool! I love my pool and spend some of nearly every day in it in the summer. Usually to cool off after lawn work or walking.
*Exercising outside becomes a battle of wills between nature and my desire for health. Sometimes nature wins because it's TOO cold.
*Fresh fruits and vegetables are more difficult to come by. And the fruit smoothies I make aren't as much fun when I'm cold.
*Poor drivers descent into something worse than bad driving in the winter.

You know me, I could go on and on about the evilness of winter but I'll stop there. A good thing about it is Christmas and the other holidays during the otherwise darkest time of year.

Don't forget you have this week yet to get your short story in for the first IWSG anthology. Deadline is November 1st and the details are here.

Visit Bish Denham or Alex J. Cavanaugh to find the rest of the list of list-ers. And you can help me out on my list. Show solidarity about winter with me or point out some of the good points of winter that I may be overlooking. Are you a list maker? Have you been blogging as long as Bish?