January has ended and I’m almost glad.

Almost because today marks another year I have been on Planet Earth and, at my stage of life, that is a sobering fact.

Glad because last month engaged me in a daily struggle to maintain the blog’s connection to the server. The problem left me without access to The Next Phase Blog for over a week. I lost a week of posts, a week of readers enjoying those posts and a week of page views that I use to measure progress and interest.

Smoothing Out the Wrinkles

Oh, well. Worse things have happened. I spent a lot of time on the phone and finally got the problem sort of fixed but it keeps recurring, which is annoying and frustrating. I hope to iron out the wrinkles soon.

Nevertheless, I and my other authors persevered and we finally got 12 blog posts published. The cold weather keeping us inside makes for time to catch up on anything you might have missed—especially if you gave up after seeing no new posts during the week of January 4.

Persevering Through the Cold

And speaking of the cold, last night I drove into Boston to attend a private Boston By Foot tour of the Emerson Colonial Theater. (More on that in a future post.) I parked in the garage, underneath Boston Common. I had on a winter coat and gloves.

As I waited for the elevator up from the lower level, a sharp young businessman strolled up to wait along with me. He wore a business suit with the collar turned up to keep him warm. No overcoat, no hat, no gloves, no scarf.

Being a grandmother, I commented, “No gloves?” He beamed. “Not really,” he said. “Well, I have them but they’re in the car.” The Polar Vortex had not yet struck Boston so I refrained from telling him that he had 10 minutes from the exit to his destination before frostbite set in.

There’s Always One

No matter how cold it gets, there’s always one of the guys around. You can tell who they are because even on the most frigid days they wear shorts and, often, sandals. When the temperature drops, they add socks to the sandals and put on a flannel shirt. If it’s too sloppy for sandals, they wear sneakers and tennis socks.

Other people dress for the weather but the Men in Shorts consider themselves above it all, warmed by a high metabolism. Or an exaggerated idea of masculinity. I wonder how many end up in the ER during a Polar Vortex, surprised that frostbite could happen to them.

Denial is powerful.

Roundup of January 2019 Posts

As usual, we covered a wide range of topics last month with information, advice and opinions. Make a pot of coffee, pull up a chair and go through the roundup of January 2019 blog posts.

Animals

• That Doggy in the Shelter Window—Susanne

Boston and History

• Boston’s LaGrange Street: Connecting Centuries — Aline
• Boston’s Egyptian Revival Monuments: Part 1 — Aline

Environment

• The Eco-Friendly Debate Debunked — Jackie
• 2019: The Turning Point for Consumer Plastic? – Aline

Friends and Family

• Family Heirlooms: A Thing of the Past? — Susanne

Lifestyle and Culture

• A Government Shutdown Should Be Illegal — Aline
• Aging Gracefully: One Woman’s Perspective – Aline

Movies and Television

• 11 Science Fiction Movies Scheduled for 1H 2019 — Aline
• Report on Science Fiction Movies 2H 2018 — Aline

That’s it for January. February is a short month but we will do our best to populate it with interesting posts. Stay warm, stay dry and don’t wear shorts.