Hard to believe, but another year is behind us and a new one just beginning. Actually, that’s true every single morning, but it seems we only take note of it on this day. It would be interesting to find out how some guy centuries ago (I’m not being sexist; back then it was always “a guy”) decided that this would be the day we’d mark as the beginning of our annual trip around the sun, and not any of the others. I’m guessing it had something to do with the winter solstice, but most of those folks were pretty good at figuring out the exact day of the solstice, so setting a day over a week later seems a little arbitrary to me. Maybe it was tied to the end of the celebration of the solstice or something. One day I’ll take some time to research it and figure it out.
So here we are at the beginning of another year. 2015 was a pretty good year for us, I’d say, although it had it share of ups and downs. Work was good; productive, busy and rewarding; Cathy enjoyed her second full year of retirement and we both have stayed healthy. We’ve stayed close to family; I got to see my brother Jim and his daughter Devon, and my sister Kathleen a number of times throughout the year (it’s a lot easier since Jim and I get to see each other for work as well as pleasure), and my travel schedule gives me the opportunity to see them all regularly. On Cathy’s side, we had a Chant Family Reunion in the summer; her sister Cindy took a job that required her to be in California a significant amount of time so she’s been staying with us while here, and we went to Santa Cruz for our nephew’s Oktoberfest…you get the idea.
It hasn’t all been perfect; losing my friend Mike to a motorcycle accident was very sad; it reminds me how fleeting everything can be.
We have some big plans for 2016; a kitchen remodel and trip to Africa are the two biggies in the first half of the year. We plan on starting the kitchen in a just 3 weeks, and plan on it being finished well in time for our trip in late May. Also, the usual things of getting more exercise, eating better and so forth.
Why do we make the resolutions on New Years? This is an interesting custom. We pick a day (I grant you choosing January 1 is not arbitrary; there’s a lot of societal support for doing so), and on that day commit to being a different person a variety of ways. I think it’s partly related to what I wrote about a few posts back about “the good life.” We have a mental picture of who we think we are, or perhaps who we’d like to be, and try to work more to make that picture become reality. Of course most of our resolutions have a pretty short half-life; habits are hard to change.
It strikes me that life is a journey, so maybe it’s good enough to just keep trying. And our resolutions on New Year’s Day are a way for us to bring back into focus what type of person we would like to be.
So we’ve got that goin’ for us. Which is nice, I think.
About BigBill
Stats: Married male boomer.
Hobbies: Hiking, woodworking, reading, philosophy, good conversation.
It’s 2016!
So here we are at the beginning of another year. 2015 was a pretty good year for us, I’d say, although it had it share of ups and downs. Work was good; productive, busy and rewarding; Cathy enjoyed her second full year of retirement and we both have stayed healthy. We’ve stayed close to family; I got to see my brother Jim and his daughter Devon, and my sister Kathleen a number of times throughout the year (it’s a lot easier since Jim and I get to see each other for work as well as pleasure), and my travel schedule gives me the opportunity to see them all regularly. On Cathy’s side, we had a Chant Family Reunion in the summer; her sister Cindy took a job that required her to be in California a significant amount of time so she’s been staying with us while here, and we went to Santa Cruz for our nephew’s Oktoberfest…you get the idea.
It hasn’t all been perfect; losing my friend Mike to a motorcycle accident was very sad; it reminds me how fleeting everything can be.
We have some big plans for 2016; a kitchen remodel and trip to Africa are the two biggies in the first half of the year. We plan on starting the kitchen in a just 3 weeks, and plan on it being finished well in time for our trip in late May. Also, the usual things of getting more exercise, eating better and so forth.
Why do we make the resolutions on New Years? This is an interesting custom. We pick a day (I grant you choosing January 1 is not arbitrary; there’s a lot of societal support for doing so), and on that day commit to being a different person a variety of ways. I think it’s partly related to what I wrote about a few posts back about “the good life.” We have a mental picture of who we think we are, or perhaps who we’d like to be, and try to work more to make that picture become reality. Of course most of our resolutions have a pretty short half-life; habits are hard to change.
It strikes me that life is a journey, so maybe it’s good enough to just keep trying. And our resolutions on New Year’s Day are a way for us to bring back into focus what type of person we would like to be.
So we’ve got that goin’ for us. Which is nice, I think.
About BigBill
Stats: Married male boomer. Hobbies: Hiking, woodworking, reading, philosophy, good conversation.