When I set the schedule for the latest Monthly Wine Writing Challenge, I did what I always do: I consulted my calendar. On this latest iteration, I saw that I would be in France when the deadline occurred, but I figured it would be no problem getting the vote up and running since I am always up fairly early in the morning and the first item on the schedule for that day was 9:00 a.m. That would leave me plenty of time, I thought, to get the post up.

Well, those of you that follow me on Facebook know that I have been suffering the world’s worst cold over the last week plus, which includes these last few days. That Tuesday morning I was up well before 9, but I was frantically searching for the nearest pharmacy (it was two miles away) since I feared my head would explode once I stepped on the plane unless I could find some magical French drug that would alleviate the congestion in my head. I got to the pharmacy, but the rest of the day was consumed by the kind people in Moulin-à-Vent.

So Tuesday was out.

Wednesday was a whole day of travel, starting at four in the morning (French time), and not ending until midnight (Houston time). That’s 26 straight hours, for those of you that are time zone challenged.

So Wednesday was out.

Yesterday as you Americans know, was Thanksgiving and I was given strict orders to stay in bed all day since we were having a house full of people over (including several kids) and my wife wanted me to rest as much as possible (whether she thought that the extra rest would miraculously make the symptoms vanish, I am not sure—and I didn’t ask—she is a “real” doctor and far smarter than i).

So Thursday was out.

Thus, here I am on Friday, and I wondered whether I should post the entries now. After some hemming and a bit of hawing, I decided against for a couple of reasons: First, as far as I can tell, there are only a handful of entries and second, most of you are probably out shopping your brains out.

So Friday is out.

Instead, I am going to delay the vote a few more days, hoping that there will be a few more entries and this cold will be in my rearview mirror.

Thus, the revised timeline:

The all important dates:

Deadline for submission:  Monday, November 20th, 2017 November 27th, 2017

Voting Begins: Tuesday, November 21st, 2017 November 28th, 2017

Voting Ends:  Monday, November 27th, 2017 December 4th, 2017

Winner Announced:  Tuesday, November 28th, 2017 December 5th, 2017

Hopefully, that will provide a bit more time for those of us (including me) who have not yet tackled this month’s theme.