Ping Pong by Helen Henderson

Windmaster Golem
Click the cover for purchase information

Ping pong, or table tennis, is a 19th-century Victorian parlor game where two or four players use small, solid paddles to hit a ball back and forth across a table. It eventually became an Olympic sport. Before the days of social media, the internet, and omnipresent technology and electronic games, ping pong tables were popular on college campuses and could even be found in civic and church recreational halls. When it was too dark or too cold outside for frisbee, table tennis filled the void.

However, it is ping pong as a verb that has been keeping the meteorologists busy. The official definition is to, "move rapidly back and forth or between different states." Within days, or sometimes even hours, weather and temperatures varied widely and could go from the 70s to the 20s in a blink. A sunny day with wispy clouds gives way to rain, sleet, freezing rain, and snow. And that didn't include two back to back ice storms that left pine boughs and magnolia branches littering the ground. I felt sorry for the daffodils who couldn't decide to bloom or duck and cover. 

No putting away winter clothes for the season. Pretty much every type of outfit from ski jackets and thermals to short sleeve tee shirts and shorts were needed to keep up with  the temperatures ping ponging. About the only outfit that wasn't needed was a bathing suit. 

The bright colors of  cherry tree blossoms tell warmer weather has arrived.

When the weather is bad in my area, sometimes it is the characters who bear the brunt of it. In Windmaster, Ellspeth and Dal are riding a dangerous mountain trail in a blizzard. Exhaustion and being soaked to the skin are not the only problems encountered. Even after shelter is found, Ellspeth comes under a psychic attack.

Where I grew up,  cardinals came with snow. The arrival of robins in the yard and the blooming of daffodils and crocuses signaled spring. Outside our sunroom in the more southerly clime, the winged harbingers of spring and winter co-exist all year round. So how to tell its spring?

Beyond a date on the calendar, I'm not sure anymore. But nature's playing ping pong with the weather and temperature has one benefit. It allows for procrastination in spring cleaning and swapping out seasonal items. And is a perfect excuse to get a new book.

~till next month, stay safe and read.

To purchase the Windmaster Novels: BWL

Find out more about me and my novels at Journey to Worlds of Imagination.
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Helen Henderson lives in western Tennessee with her husband. While she doesn’t have any pets in residence at the moment, she often visits a husky who have adopted her as one the pack.