New Year's Eve Again

Here we are again, another year under our belts. I went back to re-read what I wrote last December 31, and I really have nothing to add to it. Feeling grateful for my blessings and having gotten through another 12 months virtually unscathed. (I can't help it; I tend to think of life as an obstacle course, or running the gauntlet. If you can get through it with no blood on the floor, you win!)

The first week of January last year, there was a "bomb cyclone," and it was -37 here. This year, after another long, warm, mild autumn, we are still enjoying temperatures above freezing most days. There was an inch of powdery, dry snow yesterday that melted by afternoon. I still wear a sweatshirt instead of a coat to walk the dogs (and yeah, still a broken zipper on the coat). There's always that tentative hope that we'll just carry on through the entire winter like this, even though you know deep down the hope is futile and eventually we'll be swathed in eight layers and digging out of three feet of snow. But still, as long as the cold holds off, the hope lives on.

I wish everyone a safe, healthy, and peaceful new year.