The Eve Of A New Year

Here we are. It’s the eve of a new year, the turning of the calendar, a proverbial clean slate.

This year certainly was one for the record books and one we will talk about for the rest of our lives.

The truth is, 2020 wasn’t a terrible year for me personally as I kept my job and income, maintained good health, and even had more time for rest and relaxation.

My introverted self is perfectly happy staying home and six feet away from others. I do terribly miss traveling but understand this is for now, not forever.

This was the year I learned to truly find joy in the small things like a bird at the window, a quiet walk in the woods, and the first bite of a juicy orange.

It was actually a good year in my small place in the universe.

Setting aside my own experience, it is hard to watch people suffer and struggle. From the logistics of childcare, to lost income, illness and isolation, people are struggling. I worry for small businesses and for the families that depend on them for work. I worry for kids who aren’t in school where we know they are safe and fed and learning something. Child abuse and neglect are among the tragedies not being well explored as we are too busy with triage in other areas.

So far, our country has lost about 330,000 souls to this pandemic.

To put that into perspective, that’s more than the population of Cincinnati with its approximate 306,000 people.

Imagine one of Ohio’s three biggest cities wiped off the map. That’s how many of our fellow Americans have been lost.

And we aren’t through the woods yet as experts tell us that January will be a dark month for many.

Still, I am hopeful that life will be better one year from today.

The vintage photo above was labeled “New Years” and offers some much needed levity to this discussion. To be a fly on the wall just before she took this drink!

I won’t be staying up late tonight and I won’t be drinking to dull the effects of the year. Instead, I plan to go to bed early tonight, to read until I fall asleep, and then wake up refreshed in the morning.

2020 can see itself to the door.

I’ll be ready to greet the new year with fresh, rested eyes first thing tomorrow.

Winter Walk

I walked with a friend at a local park yesterday.

It was a beautiful day for a long walk at a familiar place.

I always say the official mascot here is the Canada Geese. Yesterday didn’t disappoint. They were everywhere.

Between this walk and some shopping, my Fitbit logged about nine miles. That’s not half bad for a day of leisure!

Grange Building

The day Jack Pine hosted his amazing glass pumpkin patch this fall, I savored the sunshine by taking a drive. This Grange building is just north of Jack Pine’s place, right along the beaten path, but I’ve never had time to stop.

The color pictures were fine but the black and white images speak to me.

The Grange dates back to 1867 but I’m not sure about the age of this building. It’s quite old but appears to be lovingly cared for. It was formed to help farmers with the many issues they face and even to do some political lobbying on their behalf.

Standing there, for just a moment, I could imagine horses tied to trees and hitched to wagons while men in overalls discussed the price of corn.

That’s the amazing thing about visiting some of these old places. If you have any imagination at all, time travel is possible.

Do You Believe In Resolutions?

What’s your stance on New Year’s Resolutions?

Studies show that about sixty percent of us make resolutions but only about eight percent of us follow through on them.

I’m a planner and a goal setter so I usually have two or three of varying size.

One of my 2020 resolutions was to read 100 books. Check!

Another was to travel as much as possible with a couple of big trips in mind along with some weekend getaways. That clearly didn’t work out.

And there were some smaller ones that fell to the wayside but others came to light as the year progressed. For example, I log the miles that I hike and intentionally walk every day and am very close to reaching 500 miles.

Planning is in my nature and one of my stronger skills. I’m good at breaking down a large project into small pieces that can be completed in phases. Sadly, 2020 sort of beat the desire to plan right out of me.

And yet, here I am, contemplating goals for the new year. It isn’t productive to wait for the flip of a calendar page to start but a new year feels like a fresh start and an irresistible opportunity to take a run at planning again.

The picture above is from a Denver sidewalk. Most of us will never make it to the moon. But what’s the phrase? Shoot for the moon and even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.

Reading, walking and traveling may not get me to the moon or the stars but these things will give me opportunity to improve myself and that’s pretty good too.

Ohio Valley Antique Mall

One of my favorite antiquing destinations is the Ohio Valley Antique Mall in Fairfield. That’s in the greater Cincinnati area so it’s a bit of a haul over there but always worth the trip because they have so much stuff and typically good prices.

Best of all, there’s not a lot of the flea market junk we have at some stores closer to home. Instead, there’s a lot of quality booths brimming with treasures.

Someone likes green. This entire booth is devoted to items in various shades of green. It’s the only place I’ve ever seen this done to this scale. This is actually less than one half of the booth.

Then there are the suitcases. So many suitcases!

And a fair amount of ingenious upcycling.

Booths like this always make me think there’s a guy out there who got married and whose new wife wouldn’t let him keep his man cave. I mean, it looks like some dude’s rec room just got packed up and moved to a corner booth!

If you’re into Fiesta, there’s a booth packed with new Fiesta items. Honestly, they have so much stuff here that if you can’t find it, you probably don’t need it.

Want to go? Check out their website for hours and information. They do have restrooms, vending machines and a snack bar. There are also a couple of fast food restaurants in adjacent parking lots.

White Christmas

Southeastern Ohio isn’t known for its snowfall. Rarely do we have large accumulations and when it happens, it typically melts in a few days.

We also haven’t had a white Christmas in recent years unless you count light flurries.

As we have learned, 2020 has been a year full of surprises and abnormalities. It shouldn’t be a surprise to any of us that Christmas would be different too.

I was thrilled when snow moved in on Christmas Eve, dumping six inches on my ridge in a matter of hours. The walk home in the snow that night was delightful and I was pleased to awake to more flurries in the morning.

Scout stood sentinel, watching the snowfall from one window and Bluejays from another.

I didn’t make it out with my camera but did snap a few phone pictures to commemorate the most significant Christmas snowfall we’ve seen in years.

I did feel bad for people traveling as the situation quickly escalated to a level three snow emergency (This system gauges road conditions and that’s as bad as it gets where I live) but was equally thrilled for the kids who got sleds for Christmas.

White Christmas or not, I hope yours was merry and bright.