When you live in the country, there is one question you get very used to being asked. At first, when the question came my way, I was blindsided — caught like an out-of-towner who stumbles into one of the gas stations in this neck of the woods.

I was listening to the radio the other day when the DJ invited listeners to call in and tell him the date they finished their holiday shopping. One lady claimed she had put her final package in the attic for safekeeping on October 5. Another said she had wrapped it all up back in August.