First Snow

I could tell by the quality of light filtering through my curtains in the middle of the night. At 3:30 in the morning, there was a soft whiteness to the glow coming in. Not like the cold light of the moon, nor the acetylene orange glow of the street lamps. One of my small children crawled in quietly and tucked in for comfort from a cold.

When I rose to take her back to bed, I drew apart the curtains before lying down again and gazed out in wonder. First snow is always ethereal. It falls softly, secretively. It coats the world in a cold, white rime.

When I left the house, the world was hushed. There was no wind, only the church bells tolling my lateness. What did it matter, Mother Nature provided me with ample views to ward of the madness that encroaches on the roads when the snow first falls. It took me an hour to get to work. Twice as long. At least I enjoyed every minute of it.

Tonight we are supposed to be getting 10 – 15 cm of it. I won’t think it’s that idyllic then.

What have I been up to?

Well, I’m Certifiable

However, this kind of certifiable means I will someday be able to put letters after my name, should I choose to indulge in pomposity. The Editors’ Association of Canada has developed a certification program to aide editors across the country in justifying their abilities, credentials, degrees, diplomas, and wages.

As with many ironic things, most people will pay a plumber or an electrician upwards of $70-80 an hour to fix something in their house, presumably because they haven’t the foggiest idea how the water and power works, and yet they believe that an editor is either unnecessary because everyone can write or that the money estimated to do a good job of making said writers look good will cost too much. Can you tell I might be the least bit passionate about this subject? I read what writers write. And, yes, some of them are really good. However, they are an exception. I presume it has much to do with the fact that reading is a dying art when faced with the options of High-Def TV and a multitude of terrible programming to choose from. Or I suppose there’s Warcraft and other video games to play.

So what I did was write exams for Copy Editing, Proofreading, and An Elementary Knowledge of the Publishing Process. These were gruelling skills-based exams that left me a gibbering idiot all three times. To prepare myself, I did practice tests for them that all left me feeling like I knew nothing about the profession I’ve been plying for more than 10 years. This knocks down the pride just a few marks off humble, let me tell you. However, the hit to my self-confidence made it possible to buckle down acknowledge the things I didn’t know and study them like mad. 80% is the pass mark. I hope I passed, because I’m none-too-ready to go and lug all those book around again any time soon.

Cape Breton Get-Together

As well, on the weekend Bruce and I travelled to Toronto to see friends of ours who also went to the Gaelic College this past summer. We enjoyed good company, excellent chowder and some tunes. I beat my drum until my exam-addled brain had to quit whereupon I finished a lovely hat for a friend of mine and closed my eyes to stop the thumping in my head.

What’s Coming Up?

Well, Corkery Road is celebrating their first year together by shunning their instruments and getting together to share food and talk. I am wondering what kind of twitching will be going on because of the lack of instruments in our hands, and I will profess now that I will also leave my knitting at home. Although it may kill me (33 days till Christmas, you know.)

Also, at the end of the month CR will be heading back into the studio to lay down 13 tracks for our first as yet unnamed album.

December 1^st, Bruce and I are going to see JIIG out in McDonalds Corners in a house concert.

December 9^th, The Barley Shakers are performing their Celtic Christmas Concert in Middleville. Last year was wonderful and this year is sure to be the same.

December 12^th the Rankin Sisters are doing Christmas at Centrepointe Theatre.

Then there will be the family madness…I mean Christmases. I love this time of year.

Update

Well, it did snow all that much over the last couple of days and the world does look like a wonderland. I bought a scoop and have cleared the laneway and the heavy crud left by that devil who plows the snow. How he managed to put so much of it in my walkway (impeding the Postal Worker from getting to my door), I'll never know. I suspect it's going to be a loooong winter.

And now, I have to reknit the foot of a sock (the same one I knit last night only to discover that it was too wide.) How these lapses in basic math occur, I know not.