2023

It's just a little after 5am, New Years Day. I've been sleeping well [for me] for the past week or more, but not last night.

The fireworks that I was not going to bother to attend last night did not happen anyway due to fog and rain. Indeed, there has been so much rain that our snow has diminished by a lot. Where the snow has not been piled, as in the backyard, there are bare patches. There is still plenty of snow in the front yard where the snow blowers keep blowing it from the driveway. Once we get a good December snow, it has never left us completely until March and sometimes April, no matter how much of a thaw occurs in the meantime.

One good thing about the unnatural rain and warmth was that I got the driveway de-iced. It took a lot of chipping along with the help of the weather, but I did  get it done. It ices when the heavy plow keeps going over it to clear the snow, but the plow doesn't get it down to the pavement. Then, more snow falls, and the plow compacts it even more. I call it a plow, but it is a heavy duty blower. Also, when I call it ice, it is like glacial ice made up of layers of  heavily compacted snow: not frozen water as in a skating rink.

Getting back to the cancelled fireworks, they will try again on the 7th, and I will probably turn chicken again and remain in my comfy home. 

There's not much else to write on this first day of 2023, but I thought that I should post something. Sue went to bed at her usual time last night – about 9 o'clock. I followed at my usual time – about 10:30. Then I was up ~4 this morning and hadn't slept well for about an hour before that. Shauna did go out, and I see that she texted us shortly after 12. She has always wished us well at New Years. Once upon a time it would be a phone call. Those were the days in which we oldsters weren't so old and would stay up until the magic hour.

Oh . . . we did observe another tradition. It's a more recent one – of watching White Christmas with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and so on. It's a corny old flick, but Sue likes the costumes and dancing, and I like Sue. We don't necessarily watch it on the Eve but at some time near New Years. Traditions, eh?

I will leave you with a photo. It's a slightly modified version of one that you have seen before of fireworks over the junction. I superimposed the fireworks, probably from last New Years Eve, but I don't remember for sure.

The Junction is a modern re-creation of the historical railway junction in our town where north-south and east-west lines converged. It has been installed in an area that the town hopes will be a new kind of junction – a gathering place for people at special community events.

I will cease my prattling now, but I wanted to write something on this day. I hope you all get a good start to a new year that will go on to be a good one for you and yours.