I took the month off from blogging, but unfortunately not from work.

Seems like my public relations consulting business, Lewis & Summers Public Relations, always heats up during the holidays.

Just when I think I’m taking a few days of R & R, project deadlines raise their ugly heads. Mostly, it’s been creating 2008 plans for clients. Luckily, I like all my clients, so it’s not unpleasant. In other news …
- For Christmas, my wife, Gerry, bought me a fire pit — a kettle for the backyard that allows me to make samores and believe I’m around a campfire, even if really it’s winter.

- I achieved my 2007 goal of reading 50 books (mostly novels, but some non-fiction). Breaks my 2005 record of 47 books. Favorite books: The Last Season by Eric Blehm (non-fiction) and Bookman’s Wake by John Dunning (fiction). Dunning writes about a former Denver, Colorado homicide cop who quits and becomes a “book man” and opens a bookstore where he sells rare books and seems to get involved in solving murders. But I suggest you read his first novel first: .

-Took a trip with my friend, colleague and co-owner of MendocinoFun.com, to a nature preserve near the Point Arena, California Lighthouse, where we saw Tundra Swans. In lieu of backpacking right now, these short trips — 70 miles roundtrip combined with eating the world’s best omelets at Queenie’s Roadhouse in Elk, California on the way south — are my getaway.

Be light. Be safe. Be one with the pack.