Starting the New Year Right

It's a little disorienting to have the new year arrive in the middle of the week, but I've made the best of it. 

The fireworks weren't too terribly loud, although they unexpectedly started at dusk, not at midnight. I coaxed Mr. Moo from his safe space (behind the washer) to a carrier and stowed him in the bathroom, so he could miss the worst of it. I had a DVD playing and the window shades drawn. If any of the cats seemed nervous, I deployed some Boom Treats (Temptations are the brand of choice, if you're interested), trying to give the noise a positive association. The Gang of Three (more on them later) were unphased; in fact, the first time I checked on them, they were sitting in the window, looking out to see what all the fuss was about. The Inside Guys seemed to think it was just another night, with extra treats. Miss Piecey disappeared to her safe space (location unknown) but was back bright and early for breakfast as usual. She's a resilient little girl.   

I'm so very lucky that my immediate neighbors don't go crazy with the pyrotechnics. Overall it wasn't such a bad night for me. Having it fall during the week may have helped.

(PSA: Others -- veterans and others with PTSD, wildlife, pets, and livestock -- suffer much more than I do from fireworks. There are also pollution and air quality to consider. Fireworks are imported from China -- who knows what is in them? I would prefer we didn't have them, or that they were replaced with drones or silent fireworks to satisfy our collective need for spectacle.)  

On New Year's Day, the barn where I ride has a tradition of a trail ride, lake swim, and potluck lunch. My Boy's other person did the riding and swimming, and I took photos and provided ground support from the chase vehicle. We had 14 horse-and-rider combinations and they all behaved very well, with only a small kerfuffle when we turned for home -- the horses definitely knew it! There was some prancing involved, but they quickly settled down again for the walk back.

Then we had a wonderful potluck lunch that included a baked potato bar, lucky black-eyed pea salad with a Greek twist, shrimp cocktail, meatballs, various chips, veggies, and dips, cookies, chocolate strawberries, and a hot apple cobbler. The weather was perfect and everyone's dogs got along and had a grand old time roughhousing. We know how to ride, we know how to eat, and we know how to socialize!   

Thursday it was back to my regular routine of work and a riding lesson. It was the first of the year for both, and the perfect way to set the tone for what's to come.  

Now that the holidays are behind me, I'm hoping I can do a bit of review for 2024 and make some plans for 2025. I'd like to do some traveling, be more effective at work, finish some projects around the house, and keep improving my riding and relationship with My Boy. I don't set concrete goals, but I do like to identify focus areas. It seems to help keep me out of the weeds and on the path. And that's where My Boy and I want to be!

My Boy says he would like to eat a lot more peppermints in 2025, so there's that, too.

Happy New Year 2025

Welcome, 2025! 

May this year bring us all the good things we hope for!

A New Year

I had good intentions for a new year post that would review 2023's highlights, but catching Covid at the office holiday luncheon put the kibosh on my Christmas plans and squelched a whole lot of my good intentions. 

Instead of a leisurely new year, I'm scrambling to wrap the last of the presents and get them delivered, now that I'm not contagious anymore.

The good news is that I wasn't all that sick, just blazingly positive for many, many days, and a "year in review" may still happen. I still have some bronchitis to defeat, but I went to the doctor and have hope that one day in the not-so-distant future I will stop coughing. 

Anyway, happy new year! May this year be filled with joy and bring us the change that we need and the stability we crave.

That's It for This Year

I'm not sure what got into me, but I looked around for some other challenges to sign up for -- ah, the wave of optimism that strikes in January! -- but I didn't see anything that demanded my participation, so I will stick with the usual challenges. I have no doubt that those 2 will give me plenty to do, especially because I upped my game to 24 books from the TBR shelves. 

Surely that's enough.

Instead of doing more reading, I will try to apply myself to reviewing more regularly and blogging more consistently.

How about THAT?     

Too Early?

Should I be thinking about New Year's Resolutions already?

Maybe it is too early, but I already have one in mind. This year I'm going to give up something I don't like. Actually, now that I think of it, two things. So there! 

I have always had trouble putting down a book that was awful. I spend quite a bit of tine on the front end, making sure I really want to read a book -- because I know that once that cover opens, I'm committed.

This year, I'm not going to do it. A hundred pages or so and I'd better be finding some merit in there -- or I'm reading no further.

I'm also going to step back from some of the reading lists I've set my sights on. The Radcliffe's Top 100 Novels list includes some titles I'd never read on my own, so that's probably a good place to begin. I may still try to read a lot of the books on the list, but I grant myself permission to say "nope" to some of them. 

Life's too short to spend it reading bad books! Or in this case, books I don't enjoy reading.

In case you're wondering what prompted this resolution, it was Henderson the Rain King. The review I plan to write in a few days will explain all.

Meanwhile, feel free to tell me why it's your favorite book of all time. I can take it.

Variety

Friday night: This was the view from the landing, after our boat ride in downtown Jacksonville on the St. Johns River. Everyone was in a festive mood and the weather was perfect!

Saturday night: I won the first game, lost the second game, reconnected with some old friends, met some new people, and still had time to make a Christmas tree with the biscuits.

Sunday night: Driving home with the sunset behind me and thinking about the kind of year I want 2018 to be.  

What a nice weekend.

End of the Year Giveway

Know someone who likes cats? And/or classic photography? And/or clever writing filled with gentle humor and a retro vibe?

I have two copies of this book and want to pass one of them along to someone who will enjoy it as much as I have. Please comment if you're interested in this gently used copy. If there's more than one person interested, I'll do the random selection thing next week and mail it out promptly for enjoyment in 2017.

Note that the author is a "tough-minded sportswriter," per reviewer Kevin Killian, but cannot resist the charms of a savvy feline. That tells you what you need to know, in a nutshell.

If you need additional help with your decision, here's what the reviews say, courtesy of Amazon.

Happy New Year to all!

May 2017 be a year to remember--in a good way. 

Confidential to Me

One facet of this blog is its role as a diary, one of the places I write down things I want to remember. Many times I've looked back through old entries and been reminded of things I'd forgotten (most recently: the clever remark made by the airport shuttle driver in New Orleans).

Apropos of that, here are a few things I want to remember, even though they didn't fit into my previous posts about New Year's:

Host, calling out to his wife, as guests arrive: K., B.'s here with a beautiful woman!

Later, while kayaking:

Q (with extreme tact): How much paddling have you done?
A: Um, this is the most, right now.

And also:

Q: I can't see him anymore. I think he's turned off his light.
A: Well, that wouldn't surprise me.
Q: Oh, so you've known him long enough to know that?
A: Yeah -- but that only takes about 15 minutes.

Other little bits of the weekend:

A celebratory kiss in the car at the end of the journey. Loading kayaks in the dark when your fingers are numb is exhilarating!

The tone of awe folks used to describe a previous bonfire that included the Christmas tree. Apparently a well-dried Christmas tree produces a dramatic torch effect. You either move your plastic chair well away from the fire or risk melting it.

The fleeting deliciousness of wedding-cake flavored vodka -- palatable in tiny quantities only.

Cinnamon raisin bread, homemade by a good ol' boy from his mama's recipe, hand delivered on a holiday visit, slightly warmed with butter or cream cheese, shared with affection, consumed with reverence, and delicious enough to make the heavens open and the angels sing.

It's a Watery World

Lest you think the moonlight paddle was all romance, there was plenty of reality, too. For example . . .

At one point, logistics required us to catch a ride in a pickup truck. For some reason I decided it would be a good idea to ride in the bed. It was only when we were zooming down the highway that I realized what a poor decision that was. Of course, nothing bad happened (praise be!). And next time someone asks me what's the most dangerous and/or stupid thing I've done lately, I've got my answer ready.

I got pretty much soaked during the paddle, due to poor paddle technique. The temperature was in the 50s and I felt nicely warmed while on the river. By the time the bonfire portion of the evening arrived, though, I could hardly stand close enough to the fire. Eventually I noticed that I was producing my own fog -- my wet clothes were actually steaming as they dried!

We returned to civilization just in time for a midnight supper and to watch Lady Gaga drop the ball on Times Square, followed by a long, wide-ranging talk out in the garden. All in all, 2011 ended and 2012 began in a perfect equilibrium of active and quiet, social and solitary, wild and cultivated.

On New Year's Day I still felt like being outside, so I explored some new territory. There is a wetlands side to that lovely reserve along the St. Johns River (photos here and here), but I hadn't seen it. It seemed like a good match for the new year.

Apparently I was the only person who felt like a walk so early. I had the place to myself, and it was worth the small effort.

When you walk through here

you reach all this

While the other side feels very old, on this side it is easy to imagine you are the first person ever to see it. Perhaps it's because the floodplain is just that, and everything there gets periodically immersed and reborn by the lake's waters.

The grasses grow thickly and are matted flat from the water. They feel slightly spongy to walk on, even though it's dry there now. It's a good clean place to be on the first day of a clean new year.

On your way back, if you happen to look up, you might see

Anybody home? Yes, there is! Two anybodys, in fact.

Good thing I had my camera this time. I didn't even see the second bald eagle until I looked at the photos.

No Camera? No Problem.

I ended 2011 in fine fashion, but have no photos to show for it. That's by choice.

Having received a thrilling invitation to join a group of friends on a New Year's Eve kayak excursion down a local, well-protected and hence still prehistorically natural and beautiful river, I decided not to sully the experience by documenting it with technology. And so the only pictures I have are in my head and in my heart.

What pictures they are, though.

Moonlight on the river, guiding me along a smooth silvery path between flotillas of water lilies.

The muted flash of paddles in front of me, a barely discernible beacon drawing me forward into the next moment.

Turning off my headlamp and realizing how much I could see by the light of Nature.

Dipping my hand to discover water warmer than the air.

The surprising scent of woodsmoke from campers who aren't supposed to be there -- not that you can blame them for wanting to be on the river all night.

Orion throwing one foot over the treetops, on his way to the peak of the roof of the world.

Jupiter blazing close to the still-waxing moon.

A huge owl flying silently across the river, a soft dark shape against a sky full of stars.

The calls and responses of at least three more owls in three directions, floating like a banner overhead.

The quiet talk and laughter of friends pausing midway in the journey, rocking gently in the current side by side, sharing chocolates and the last of the Christmas cookies.

I took these pictures with all of my senses, and they are part of me now.

How else could you photograph falling in love with a river?

For the New Year

I think that we're all waiting to be transformed into something else

but in fact the luckiest of us are the people who realize this is it.

~Allan Gurganus

Wishing you all the good things you hope for in the New Year.

For the Old Year

In the end these things matter most:
How well did you love?
How fully did you live?
How deeply did you learn to let go?

~Buddha

Between the Holidays

Let us make merry while we may, and think upon joy,
for one may seize sorrow whenever one likes.

~Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

On Deadline (and a Birth Year Reading Challenge Reminder)

To achieve great things, two things are needed;

a plan, and not quite enough time.

~Leonard Bernstein

If you're like me, you have a few things to wrap up before the end of the year. There are some things in my life that just don't get done unless there is a cut-off date, you know?

For example, I don't even want to think about how many reviews I need to post this week in order to officially finish the various reading challenges that end in 2010. I've read all the books with time to spare, but somehow those reviews . . . just haven't wanted to write themselves quite yet.

Speaking of challenge reading, if you're in the Birth Year Reading Challenge, remember the deadline is midnight on December 31st. You can verify that you've gotten credit for all the books you've read by checking the progress post, here. Please let me know ASAP if I owe you any candles, and/or if you've met your reading goal. (Remember, when you complete your self-selected reading list, you get a prize, just for finishing.)

And if you don't have any tasks that you are scrambling to finish in the few remaining days of 2010, I salute you. Enjoy that coasting feeling!

On New Year's Eve

(photo by Victor Bezrukov)

All the money that e'er I had,

I spent it in good company,

And all the harm I've ever done,

Alas it was to none but me.

And all I've done for want of wit,

To mem'ry now I can't recall

So drink to me a parting glass,

Goodnight and joy be with you all.

~from an old song

Happy turn of the calendar to each of you, our bloggy friends.

See you in 2010!

2010: The Year of the Bookers

I know I'm early on my New Year's resolutions--heck, I'm not even quite ready for Christmas!--but with the solstice past and the days just a skosh longer, I'm quite ready to turn the wheel of the year and get on with it.

I always fudge my resolutions, because absolutes are my recipe for failure. As Anne Lamott says, "Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor." And oppression always makes me want to rebel. By trial and error, I've discovered that if I resolve to be "better" about something, then as long as I'm better, the pressure's off, there's nothing to rebel against, and my venture is primed for success.

This year, among other resolutions to be named later, I am going to put a dent in the Bookers. I have been reading the Man Booker winners for years now, long enough that I could easily have read them all if I wasn't always distracted by everything else that looks good to read on the TBR list. Even my 2009 challenge reading didn't help this category very much.

So! This year I'm making it formal by signing up for the Complete Booker 2010 Challenge. By golly, I'm going to make a dent in them this year! For the Winners Circle of this challenge, I have to read at least 6 winners.

Since I have 19 (count 'em, 19!) unread winners in my actual possession, reading 6 of them should be a piece of cake. Who knows? I might even read more than 6. Wouldn't that be nice?

It could happen. Notice I said "put a dent in" the winners list. That helps me remember I'm reading them because I want to, not because I have to.

Who was it that said that the secret to a successful life is learning to make our weaknesses work in our favor? Was it me?

Starting the Trends

Happy New Year! Off we go on another trip around the sun! Based on today's precedents, here's what I can expect in 2009:

1. Breakfasts that include bacon. Always a good thing.

2. Trips to the liquor store. It was practically deserted today. Apparently everyone in this county was there with me yesterday. What was I thinking, going to the liquor superstore on New Year's Eve?

3. Easy refunds. How busy was the liquor store yesterday? The liquor store was so busy, I wound up paying for something that wasn't part of my order. But I got my money back today, no questions asked (then spent part of it on a surprise for C.S.--please don't tell him). I hope that nice lady ahead of me enjoyed her free Veuve Clicquot last night. It was still free, even if I didn't buy it for her, after all.

4. Paying the rent. Given the state of the economy these days, not to mention the job prospects for newly minted lawyers, it's actually a pleasure to be able to pay it.

5. Organized books. Essential with a habit as serious as mine.

6. Unexpected kindnesses in the form of food. My neighbor showed up with homemade tortilla soup, which was extremely delicious. Luckily I was able to reciprocate with some fancy shrimp.

7. Funny things on the internet. On one site, I had to type in the number/letter code which, as the helpful text explained, is necessary to prevent "automated robots" from posting comments. Now I'm confused. I thought all robots were automated.

8. Lots of lap time from the cat. Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.

Luck for the New Year

Many New Year's rituals concentrate on how to be lucky in the new year: eating a grape on each of the twelve strokes of midnight, or making sure that a tall, dark, handsome male is the "first footer" in your house on January 1, or wearing yellow underwear (most charming, don't you think?). I was thinking about good luck rituals the other day while I was going about my errands, and wondering if I was going to be panhandled while I was out and about.

Unlike most people, I think of being asked for money by a needy person as a very good sign. It expands my soul to give, reminding me that in the big picture, my own moderate life is actually quite full and fruitful. If I can ease the way for someone who, for whatever reason, has been reduced to begging on the street, it's my pleasure to do it. I also believe giving is lucky.

My belief has two sources. One is "A Christmas Carol," when Scrooge--before his transformation--is described as a "tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, . . . a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner." He's the kind of person whose very appearance guarantees that no friend ever greets him on the street, and no stranger ever asks him for the time or for directions. Scrooge never gets panhandled: you can tell that's a lost cause, just by looking at him. Given those options, I'd like to think my face reflects a kinder nature.

The other source for my belief is the history reflected in "Mary Poppins," when Bert the sweep makes it clear that chimney sweeps are lucky and "good luck will rub off when I shake hands with you." In Victorian times, chimney sweeping was rather a sinister occupation and a miserable life for its child laborers. The idea of a snooty Victorian gentleman shaking hands with a sooty sweep, as though with an equal, is quite powerful. Again, it's the willingness to interact with others who are very different that makes the ritual work.

Anyway, I was thinking about that the other day as I was tucking away a little extra cash, just in case. It didn't seem very likely that I would wind up with a handshake. It had never happened before and might be more-than-appropriate in the etiquette of panhandling, if there is such a thing. Really, we want to bestow a gift, exchange good wishes, and move along, right? Truly addressing the problem takes place in other ways, under other circumstances. The on-street interaction is more symbolic than anything.

Sure enough, as I was fueling my car, a man approached me. I have to say, this guy had his elevator speech down. In less than a minute, I knew his name (almost too good to be true, but catchy--I still remember it), he was not trying to rob me, he was an artist, he was originally from Hell's Kitchen in New York, he'd just gotten out of jail, and he could use a little help. He was wearing a clean white t-shirt, black pants, and a black beret. He was clean-shaven, spoke in a clear voice, and made great eye contact. After I handed over my cash, he thanked me and then he offered his hand for a handshake. His handshake was as firm and crisp as any I've ever received.

I'm still not sure how that happened . . . . It's not often that the very thing I'm thinking about comes to pass in such immediate, dramatic fashion. But I figure I'm in good stead for the new year.

May you put a safe and happy finish on 2008, and here's to good things (and good luck!) in 2009!