kol = GetPrivateProfileString("Transition", "Winter", Date.Now, str, 255, Ini_File)

'declarations for working with Ini files

Private Declare Function GetPrivateProfileString Lib "kernel32" Alias _
 "GetPrivateProfileStringA" (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, ByVal lpKeyName As Any, _
 ByVal lpDefault As String, ByVal lpReturnedString As String, ByVal nSize As Long, _
 ByVal lpFileName As String) As Long
Private Declare Function GetPrivateProfileInt Lib "Kernel32.dll" Alias _
 "GetPrivateProfileIntA" (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, ByVal lpKeyName As String, _
 ByVal nDefault As Long, ByVal lpFileName As String) As Long
Public Declare Function WritePrivateProfileString Lib "kernel32" Alias _
 "WritePrivateProfileStringA" (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, ByVal lpKeyName As Any, _
 ByVal lpString As Any, ByVal lpFileName As String) As Long

Private Function ReadIni(Section As String, Key As String, Default As String, FileName As String) As String

  Dim RetVal As String, v As Long
  Dim retLen As Long
    
  Do
    retLen = retLen + 260 ' arbitrary - can be set higher/lower if desired
    RetVal = Space(retLen)
    v = GetPrivateProfileString(Section, Key, Default, RetVal, retLen, FileName)
  Loop Until v < retLen - 1
    
  ReadIni = Left$(RetVal, v)
  
End Function