By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
NOV. 2, 2020 | What a year 2020 has been! Let’s address saner subjects today.
With a presidential political year on top of a worldwide COVID crisis, 2020 will go down in history as one of the most distinctive ever. Having Donald Trump around already provided the year a different perspective out of Washington, but the COVID situation overwhelmed and affected us all.
Now let’s talk about other things. And hurrah!: bigtime campaigning is over for 2020!
Pretty soon we’ll see a televised football game where there will be swirls, if not a lot of fallen, snow blowing around. When fall arrives, I never fail to recognize just how lucky we are to live in a warmer, full-four season climate. But the best part, especially when watching these football games with harsh, snowy weather, is to recognize that in Metro Atlanta, we live in an area where we have long falls and springs, and relatively short winters and summer. Oh, yes, we can get the snap of heat or cold, but most times, these are relatively short.
In South Georgia, when talking with a visiting Swede, I asked if it was true that after they sat for periods in a sauna, when exiting the sauna, would they sometimes roll in the snow for stimulation. “Oh yes, many of us do that,” he told me, “But last night in Waycross, Georgia, I have never been so cold in all my life.”
When it comes to books, I like to read authors that write on themes, and have characters that you can get to know well and anticipate their instincts. My favorite author is Alexander McCall Smith, the Scotsman, who writes four novels annually on different subjects, a prolific author!
Recently at the Gwinnett library, I stumbled across an author who has written about six books about life in Mackinaw Island, Mich. Her pen name is Nancy Coco. If you haven’t been to Mackinaw, you need to know that besides the charming auto-less island itself, there are lots of fudge shops on Mackinaw. The heroine of these novels is a college-trained fudge maker herself, and on her return to take over her late grandfather’s small hotel, also has a fudge shop. Fudge recipes are at each chapter’s end. In each book, she gets into all sorts of problems, usually after she, or her dog or cat, discover dead bodies.
If you want some light mystery reading (I usually read while watching college football with the sound off), try the Nancy Coco books. They’re not too heavy, for sure, but fun.
Make an appointment, when it’s time to re-new your driver’s license. Many, depending on age, can simply renew online. But anyone older than 64 must appear in person, or of course, if you are getting your license for the first time. Either way, make that appointment.
When I showed up to re-new recently, it took only six minutes, from entering the building to leaving, to get my new license! Cynthia Crosland of Lilburn was at window No. 18, and quickly processed me through. What a pleasure from the long, long waits of a few years ago! My license arrived in the mail a week later. Spenser Moore is doing a good job, it appears, as head of the Department of Motor Vehicles commissioner.
With the election over, let’s hope we return to saner times with COVID being smothered soon.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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