14 and 4 and 20.

What do these numbers mean? Why should I be thinking about them now that temperatures have fallen from record highs two days ago to near freezing and a stiff breeze has filled the air with a fog of blowing snow?

14 is the number of trips made to the grocery store during December, January and February, the past three years...combined. 4 is the total number of grocery shopping excursions during January and February of those years.

Long-time readers of this blog will know we get snowed in here, back in the woods, at the end of a precipitous, twisty, unplowed, macadam to gravel to grass, right-of-way.

I can, and do, beg rides into town, but I like to limit that to things like quick trips to the post office or emergencies. Computers will invariably break down after a heavy snowfall if not actually during the blizzard.

So we stock up on groceries.

Oh, and the 20? Six For Gold was named one of 20 "Notables" for December by Book Sense, which represents independent booksellers.

Excuse me if I keep mentioning this stuff. It only happens when the books come out. More or less once a year. It's kind of the author's version of Christmas.