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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: fixing up that little cabin, and a little 
			corral to go with it. The cabin will have a stone fireplace when he 
			gets through with it, and knotty pine walls. He’ll sip coffee in 
			this cabin, and listen to music on the radio and hear the breeze 
			going through the pines outside. And in the corral, ol’ Snort waits 
			for him to get ready for another ride. 
 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] 
			 
			 Ol' Jimmy Dollar 
			is Slim Randles' first children's book.  The book is for kids 
			K-3rd grades and is even better when parents read it with children. 
			Ol' Jimmy Dollar makes for sweet dreams and if you have a dog 
			even better.  Available now on Amazon. |