Those of us who celebrate these ancient holidays also make Brigits crosses out of local rushes, (again, green ones are not available where I live at this time of year) and use old corn husks or reeds to make Brides dolls (usually a children's game). The crosses get hung up above the doorways to bring good luck the the house during the year ahead. The dolls are set on an altar to be blessed by the goddess when she comes round on Brigit's eve. On Brigit's day, they are given to the children. The other custom that goes along with that, is the leaving of a white cloth or ribbon ties to a clothesline, tree limb or something outside just before bedtime so the Goddess, or St. Bridgit if your a Christian, to bless on her travels on the eve.

This cloth, once blessed, it's supposed to help with the healing of injuries and sickness during the year by rubbing it or just laying over a sick person.

This custom is mostly associated with stories of a Catholic nun named Bridgit, who was later sainted, who went around healing the injured and sick when she was alive in Ancient Ireland.

I don't do the cloth bit as I have no love for the Christians and their beliefs but I do make a new Brigit's cross every year and hang it above my prayer altar. If the weather is warm enough, we'll air out the house a little bit and clean in extra places throughout the week.

My wife, being a fairly new Christian by most standards, looks at me side eyed when I celebrate these holidays but she does understand that I am not a Christian and my traditions are not like hers and her friends. I support her when she celebrates her Chinese holidays so all is good with us.

In my podcast this week, I tied parallels between Donald Trump and the Nazi Party from the 1930's and 1940's using historical notes and the current chaos happening around the world because of Trump and his loyalists. I'm not going to repeat that here. If you're interested, check it on on the podcast page in this website and learn for your self. I tried to do a good job of showing people the parallels beyween Hitler and Trump to try and put some facts to the myths floating around the internet sphere.

Next week, I'm going to start talking about the Palestinians and Gaza, since I've been inundated with news articles lately, plus some more of Trump's antics that will likely have more bad repurcussions for the American people in the near future.

I'm also going to go over to my local Barnes & Noble book store at the local mall soon and ask about setting up a book signing there for my first novel. I'm sure they will probably charge me a fee of some sort for using their store space to do this but it's worth a try. I can afford a little something but I won't do it if they try to charge me a few hundred dollars. That's the trouble with all of this book marketing. Everyone has their hand out and they don't do cheap. Oh well. This is the world we live in these days. And they keep talking about affordability.

I am selling some books though. One here, one there but sales nonetheless. Most of the sales are coming through Ingram Spark, and I only make less that two dollars a book by the time they take out all of their printing expenses. Amazon is pretty much a bust. I haven't seen a dime from them ever. I get the occasional email that they're sending me my royalty money but nothing ever shows up. Probably eaten up with their printing expenses. I'm thinking about taking down my ebook version from Amazon so that my Draft2Digital/Books.org platform will distribute my ebook version here in the U.S. and in the U.K. to indie book stores. I'm still thinking about it. I think I will see what, if any, sales I have on Amazon and make my decision from that. If I've never had any sales on Amazon, that may be my decision maker.

I've heard stories about selling books on Amazon. They want you to spend a bunch of money to promote your books, but they don't help unless you have a gazillion reviews. In other words, they rig the algorythms against you until you meet this minimum review threshold they have set up. I think Barnes & Noble may be doing something similar but I haven't heard, and the only thing I know, is that I'm not selling any books on their print on demand platform.

Maybe if I can afford a local book signing, I can get a boost there. You never know. Meanwhile, I need to work on more advertising. I made a new commercial for my podcast this week, using visuals, to promote this website. I have noticed that a few more people are visiting me here to check things out so that's a good thing. The only person who chats with me though, is my staunch supporter and dear friend Mitch. As much as I like him, I wish more people would reach out and chat with me on occasion through this website. I am using social media post to let people know I'm here so we'll see. I'll keep trying.

Maybe my paganism is offputting to some and I'm sorry if that's the case but I'm not changing my spots for anyone. The old saying about "Take me as I am or not at all" applies here. I'm okay with having civil discussions about it but I won't change for anyone. I'm not going to hide who I am either, just to keep the peace.

Enough about that. It's a bit of a sore spot for me as I have had people in the past get all over me for my spiritual beliefs. I was even banned from a Catholic church once years ago.

Maybe I will write a story about that someday and post it on my Medium.com page. People there seem to like that kind of thing.

I think I'll finish this by saying how much I'm tired of snow and ice already. I moved away from all of that ten years ago now, and I never thought I would be out chopping ice out of my driveway again here in central Virginia. It really sucks. These more frequent polar vortexes every winter are wearing me out. Up until yesterday, the early morning outside temps have been at -8C for a couple of weeks now. It's now gotten up to just below freezing and up near 6C during the daylight hours. Which is good as the ice is finally starting to melt off the streets in my subdivision. The rubbish company is back to picking up the bins again. Now if only the post would start delivering the mail. I don't want to have to go back to the local postal office to pick up my mail again. I went once last Monday and it was a unorganized disaster. I only went because I was a little desperate and needed some important mail pieces they were holding.

I know this as I had signed up months ago to receive emails showing my mail for the day from them, so I knew what they had for me. I was hoping that was going to be a one time thing so we'll see. Maybe I'll find a way to let them know that most of the streets are clear enough to start delivering again without setting foot in there again while this delivery delay is still going on. To date, most of the mail they're holding is junk mail so I'm in no hurry to pick that up. I hope they figure it out and get back to doing their jobs soon.

That's what's on my mind this week. I hope my musings here relate with readers who may discover this blog someday. I try to keep it real and honest. Thank you for checking in. Sláinte