Faithful Nest

Perhaps that should be nation-ality holiday. With 2025 St. Patrick’s day almost a month past, I am going to miss the excuse to drink beer and dress green. St. Patrick’s day stretches for the entire month, right? For me it does. Frankly, I’m going to miss the distraction. The political scene gives entirely new meaning to existential dread.

Let’s take a step back. While the banks remain open and the feds have not shut anything down… Oops, more on that later. Let’s just say that St. Patrick’s day has not been declared a national holiday. I am certainly okay with it if it is. The only thing that comes close is the change to Daylight Savings Time (DST). There we have another bone to pick.

If you are going to stick with one time status, please make it DST. Anyone who works first shift will atest that CST leaves us in the dark. It’s bad enough our current leader wants to keep us in the dark. The extra hour tacked on at the end of the day provides opportunity for bike riding, softball, outdoor adventure, and so much more. Here in Wisconsin we venture forth cautiously knowing that the last snowfall may not have fallen yet. But, oh, do we plan for the 100 yard dash we call summer.

I have legitimate claim to St. Pat’s as a holiday. Both my mother’s and father’s lineage hold members of the diaspora. Much more of the pot o’gold falls to my dad’s side. Green milk, butter, and anything else touched by mischevious leprechaun’s spill through my childhood. We can catch up at the Irishfest. You’ll find me there or at the Irish bazaar or playing Red Hot Chili Pipers (Scottish but still gaelic).

Swirled like a Celtic knot into the mix this year is my first publishing adventure. Perhaps first is not fair, as I have had work included in a number of anothologies. I am working toward publishing the first book of my poetic work.

An offer came in and I decided to push off into this adventure. Beginning with culling out a list of work that has not been published elsewhere, next step was to sort and paste them into sections. With this completed, fine tuning order to present a pleasing book to read took me hours. I enlisted the help of two editors who ran through everything with a finetooth comb. Hours of their time was spent preparing notes which they toiled through with me. That is a ridiculously simplistic explanation of hours of preparation.

Currently, the project is at the point where the publisher has the work. Final edits are going to take place. An update will come when this is finally an available printed piece.

We are not there, yet.