Morning grins.

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I keep thinking back to a point in time. Two women, relatively attractive, friends of mine, and myself, were together at a gathering. These two women are a generation apart, but close for various reasons. In the group was an unattractive women. Unattractive in all ways, physically, truly. A nice enough woman, and a good wife to her husband on all accounts that I have. The two women, initially, made it clear that they were the top dogs. Fine, exert your influence, show your status. Not my favored play, but a natural one. I do it at times when among men, we seem to just fall into it. But then they wouldn't stop. They kept on and on, really, making me more than a little hot under the collar and they weren't ALL that. More so, beauty has to be more than looks even if they were absolute dolls. A little grace and humility, even pity or charity or such for the less among us add greatly to beauty.

So, I started flirting with the ugly woman. Oh, just common dalliances, she was married and I am a good man these days. I just ignored or downplayed the more attractive women's words and such. Over and over. Talk about an angry hen house! I didn't care, well, actually I did and that is precisely what I was aiming to get. For some reason, my very minor overtures to the ugly women absolutely steamed my lady friends. And I absolutely ate it up. So did the unattractive woman. The more they tried or said, the more I went in the other direction. Oh, they still hold a grudge for that. I even, at a later date, explained myself. One of them, at least, seemed to understand. Oh, I had tried to politely dissuade them when they started, they were having none of it. Just desserts, I do believe.

There is no point to the story, really. For whatever reason, the tale is just one of my fonder memories and has been percolating in my mind, giving me chortles at various expressions and parts of the conversations as I remember them while I wake. I simply thought to share it. Enjoy it or don't, I'm grinning ear to ear on this side of the monitor. Oh such loverly fun we can have when tending the weak among us.

The mountains with the clouds just high enough and enough sunlight filtering through are exhibited with wonderful relief this morning. A perfect winter day, even if not officially winter. I truly love the various weather patterns and seasons here, save when it is so socked in the mountains aren't visible. I also love living in a place where having my curtains open isn't a danger. I do want a spotting scope. The slopes to my south, being so steep and getting so much snow, would allow me to watch avalanches occasionally. No skiing occurs there, save perhaps for the people who offer to throw their lives away for fun and fear, needing to be delivered via helicopter. Though perhaps these peaks are even beyond that.

I just thought to look it up. I either never knew or forgot that winter doesn't officially start until late December, around the 21st or 22nd day of the month, depending on the year. I suppose I don't care what history or tradition is on this one account. As soon as snow begins to stick, or when it drops to the point where a coat is a necessity, I call it winter. Both are being flirted with by my environment, so... it's winter!