Good bye to the year 2006. Welcome to 2007. I always have high hopes at the beginning of a new year, but I never have concrete wishes for anything specific. It’s just a nebulous feeling that the days to come will bring an ease to the country’s difficulties and to quote Porgy and Bess, hope that “living is easy”.
I make resolutions up the kazoo. I make a list of things I should do and things I might want to do. I jot them down on scrap paper until the list numbers between 10 and 15. It may take a day or two to make the list, but by New Year’s Day, the list is complete and I write them out on a nice sheet of paper and put it in a place where I’ll see it from time to time. I actually keep some of the resolutions.
One resolution I make every year and the one I always keep, is DO SOMETHING I HAVE NEVER DONE BEFORE. It doesn’t have to be world shaking, expensive, extraordinary or conformist but without fanfare and accomplished before the year is over. Among these resolutions I’ve had my ears pierced, raised chickens and sold eggs, took up the violin, passed the FCC exam and became a ham radio operator, and started this blog.
For many years I’ve been content to stay home, read a book and watch the TV coverage of fireworks celebrations around the globe while waiting for the ball to fall in New York. As a child of 8, I remember trying to stay awake but was too sleepy to wait until midnight so Mom served me strawberry Jello with whipped cream and helped me to bed.
The year that I was in the 5th grade, my family was at grandma W’s house on New Year’s Eve. H.O., Paul and George, my uncles who were only several years older than I, wanted to see the New Year in while sledding down the hill near grandma’s house. It was a bitterly cold night; the snow was deep and still falling. Every little while one of us would run back to the house to get warmed up a bit, have some hot cocoa and cookies, and then come running back to have turns with the sleds. George and I often did the runs together; one of us steering the sled and the other, running and pushing as hard as they could then jumping on top of the one steering for the icy two block ride down to the bottom of the hill. I still have a scar on my leg from the run that finished the sledding for that night. George and I slammed head long into the telephone pole at the bottom of the hill! George got a bloody nose and was yelling to beat the band. He was helped up the hill by Paul and H.O. who thought he was badly hurt because of all the blood. They left me behind and I had to limp to the house by myself. My leg had been caught between the sled and the pole and I could hardly walk. George and I chatted on the phone yesterday reminiscing about that night and I still lay a guilt trip on him for steering into the pole.
One New Year’s Eve at the Sky Ranch, when Esther and Vern and my husband and I were newly weds, we played a trick on Mom by pretending to have made her a strong alcoholic drink. We had only mixed 7up and ginger ale but told her it had a splash of whisky. Mom rarely if ever drank anything alcoholic but we convinced her that she might get tipsy. As the clock got closer to midnight, Mom actually began to be light hearted and gay and was laughing a lot. We were certain she was drunk, but later she told us that she was pretending to be high so the joke was on us!
Tomorrow afternoon, January 1st 2007, I plan to attend a ‘virtual’ New Years party on my computer. In ‘A Tale in the Desert’, the internet game I play, the avatars, Shuofthefieryheat, Kalateth, and iziz, are throwing a party for members of their guild to celebrate the finished landscaping of their palace gardens and to commemorate the coming year. Gorgeous flowers and banners decorate the rooms and atriums. Fountains and two obelisks make the palace unique. There will be wine tasting, Hookah smoking and much mingling of avatars. We’ll gossip and exchange wishes for a Happy New Year. A large display of fireworks is planned to anoint 2007 and bring it in with style.
I want to wish all my readers a Happy New Year. May all your wishes and good intentions come to fruition and flourish in peace.
I make resolutions up the kazoo. I make a list of things I should do and things I might want to do. I jot them down on scrap paper until the list numbers between 10 and 15. It may take a day or two to make the list, but by New Year’s Day, the list is complete and I write them out on a nice sheet of paper and put it in a place where I’ll see it from time to time. I actually keep some of the resolutions.
One resolution I make every year and the one I always keep, is DO SOMETHING I HAVE NEVER DONE BEFORE. It doesn’t have to be world shaking, expensive, extraordinary or conformist but without fanfare and accomplished before the year is over. Among these resolutions I’ve had my ears pierced, raised chickens and sold eggs, took up the violin, passed the FCC exam and became a ham radio operator, and started this blog.
For many years I’ve been content to stay home, read a book and watch the TV coverage of fireworks celebrations around the globe while waiting for the ball to fall in New York. As a child of 8, I remember trying to stay awake but was too sleepy to wait until midnight so Mom served me strawberry Jello with whipped cream and helped me to bed.
The year that I was in the 5th grade, my family was at grandma W’s house on New Year’s Eve. H.O., Paul and George, my uncles who were only several years older than I, wanted to see the New Year in while sledding down the hill near grandma’s house. It was a bitterly cold night; the snow was deep and still falling. Every little while one of us would run back to the house to get warmed up a bit, have some hot cocoa and cookies, and then come running back to have turns with the sleds. George and I often did the runs together; one of us steering the sled and the other, running and pushing as hard as they could then jumping on top of the one steering for the icy two block ride down to the bottom of the hill. I still have a scar on my leg from the run that finished the sledding for that night. George and I slammed head long into the telephone pole at the bottom of the hill! George got a bloody nose and was yelling to beat the band. He was helped up the hill by Paul and H.O. who thought he was badly hurt because of all the blood. They left me behind and I had to limp to the house by myself. My leg had been caught between the sled and the pole and I could hardly walk. George and I chatted on the phone yesterday reminiscing about that night and I still lay a guilt trip on him for steering into the pole.
One New Year’s Eve at the Sky Ranch, when Esther and Vern and my husband and I were newly weds, we played a trick on Mom by pretending to have made her a strong alcoholic drink. We had only mixed 7up and ginger ale but told her it had a splash of whisky. Mom rarely if ever drank anything alcoholic but we convinced her that she might get tipsy. As the clock got closer to midnight, Mom actually began to be light hearted and gay and was laughing a lot. We were certain she was drunk, but later she told us that she was pretending to be high so the joke was on us!
Tomorrow afternoon, January 1st 2007, I plan to attend a ‘virtual’ New Years party on my computer. In ‘A Tale in the Desert’, the internet game I play, the avatars, Shuofthefieryheat, Kalateth, and iziz, are throwing a party for members of their guild to celebrate the finished landscaping of their palace gardens and to commemorate the coming year. Gorgeous flowers and banners decorate the rooms and atriums. Fountains and two obelisks make the palace unique. There will be wine tasting, Hookah smoking and much mingling of avatars. We’ll gossip and exchange wishes for a Happy New Year. A large display of fireworks is planned to anoint 2007 and bring it in with style.
I want to wish all my readers a Happy New Year. May all your wishes and good intentions come to fruition and flourish in peace.
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