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			 And at night… ah, that’s the time, isn’t it? Outside it’s dark, 
			December dark, and we’re inside and warm and cocooned up. The cold 
			makes our world shrink, especially at night. But we have our dreams.
 
 For Janice Thomas, our art teacher at the high school, it’s that 
			painting she’s planning. She makes starts at it, from time to time, 
			but she’s wise enough to know she isn’t good enough to paint it yet. 
			She paints other things well, but that one … it has to be perfect. 
			It will be the painting of a lifetime, she knows.
 
 Doc will drift off to sleep tonight thinking about that new fly rod. 
			He has half a dozen, of course, that will take about any weight 
			line, and let him catch anything from mouse to moose. But even the 
			most expensive rod isn’t what he dreams of. This year, for 
			Christmas, he’s giving himself a rod-builder’s jig, and he will make 
			his own rod from a Sage blank. That will be the one. It will have 
			his own wrappings and he’ll put the ferrules on it himself. He’ll be 
			able to feel the fish breathe with this one. It will be true and 
			wonderful and last forever.
 
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            column] | 
             For cowboy Steve, the December dream is always 
			the same: building a little corral up at the cabin for Snort. Maybe 
			putting knotty pine walls in the turret. And perhaps figuring a way 
			to get that coffee pot from the stove, up the ladder to the loft 
			without Steve having to go fetch it for refills. He’ll have to work 
			on that a bit. But that’s part of the December fun as well.
 There is a nighttime sweetness and hope that hovers over us this 
			time of year. Here’s to dreams.
 
 [Text from file received from 
			Slim Randles] 
			 Brought to you by 
			that great stocking stuffer, A Cowboy’s Guide to Growing Up Right. 
			Check it out at lpdpress.com. |