Happy New Year, 2023

A fresh new year, month, and week, all in one.  Happy New Year, 2023!  

This photo was taken on the last day of 2022.  I made the strategic error of crossing "no man's land" because I wanted to walk through the park.  No man's land, however, was a sea of mud.  

These are the shoes when I got home, a mile and a half later!  I wonder how much MORE mud fell off on the path?  I am glad I have a garage where I could shed the shoes before entering the house proper and tracking all that mud in.  But it was a gorgeous day to be out walking!

Geese were flying over in formations, headed for a nearby lake.  Sky was blue, sun was shining.  Temperature was mid-40's.  Wind was... mild if there at all.

An early morning invitation

That leads into the early morning of January 1, 2023!  While I was starting to read blogs from my reading list, my phone rang.  It was my friend Geri, the one I kayak with.  Sometimes we hike together, too, and this morning, she had a last minute invitation for me to go to a state park near here (20 miles or so) for an organized hike.  She called about 7:30 a.m., and would pick me up at 8.  I looked up the forecast and thought about the last trip we'd taken to that particular park, and thought about my shoes in the garage with the mud caked on them from yesterday.

Add to that the little item of breakfast timing.  I hadn't even started to cook the oatmeal!  I declined the outing (she had someone else going with her, anyway, so I wasn't worried about her welfare).  

But the GOOD news she shared was that she had been able to go out and visit her folks.  Her dad, who experienced a stroke during the big blizzard out there two weeks ago, had recovered enough that they released him from the hospital to go home to his ranch.  After the negative prognosis they had given earlier, this was surprisingly good news.  You can't keep a farmer/rancher down.  He's still in need of speech therapy, and he's using a walker, but I'm counting this one in the win column!

Thoughts that occurred to me today:

As heady as a fresh new year feels, we're not going to do all the things we'd like in a single day, week, or even month.  Small steps daily, though, will add up.

I have set my Goodreads goal quite modestly, at 12 books in the year!  Since I am already partway into several, I think my January goal will be to finish at least one of those.  I've been rotating through them, trying to get a chapter done in one before switching to the next when it seems that "the grass is greener" in a different book that's calling to me.

I took a short walk in the early afternoon, as once again we were blessed with mild temperatures.  I did NOT go through no man's land, so I avoided the mud.

When I got back, I checked the mailbox, since I had not done so on Saturday.  I was pleasantly surprised to find a small package inside!  Could it be?  I had ordered some thermal gloves from a Facebook ad, back at the end of November or the beginning of December.  I have an e-mail from them dated December 8th that claimed the order should arrive in 10 days.

But here they are, in my mailbox on December 31st!  

I had pretty much got the idea in my head that I'd been scammed, because when I followed the link in that e-mail it took me to a "build your own domain" website, not their ordering or tracking site.

In any case, I've tried them on, they are toasty warm, and I look forward to having them for "real" Winter, which we all know will reappear before too long.

Here's hoping that you all are having a good start to your new year, whatever your own little rituals to turn the page may be.  May 2023 treat us all kindly!

Life is good!  Spark on!

🔥✨💖🎉