A New Year

I love New Year's Eve. To me, it's a time to review the last year and how I'm doing in life. While there are always things I'm not particularly pleased about or proud of, there are always some good things to remember too. Then there's New Years's Day. It's like the Universe has given us another chance, a clean slate to draw upon. While there are always things you can't control,  you still have control over your own choices. You can plan what you want your new year to be. That doesn't mean there won't be outside forces that may mess up your plans, but how you relate to those challenges is still up to you.

I saw the "blue moon" this morning! It was down close to the western horizon and it was huge and bright. It was just beautiful! I tried to get a picture, but it was still a bit dark. Oh well, it's still in my memory.

I called in sick today. That's the first time in quite awhile. I felt bad about it, but I really felt bad physically, sort of like I'd been run over by a tank. My sinuses were so full, my eyeballs were looking for space. My ears are full as well. It's not fun, but temporary. Hopefully,it will be short lived.

To anyone reading this, Happy New Year! May 2010 be a wonderful year for us all!

Cold and Colds

It's snowing again, lightly. It's cold but maybe just slightly warmer than it has been. We've had such a cold December that I'm ready to put on long-johns. It's been very cold at work, more sowhen I'm working near the freezers or in the meat department. We have big people sized ovens in the bakery so we can bake big quantities. Sometimes I'd love to just walk in after a batch has been baked, just to warm up a little! The weather reports suggests that we may be getting closer to normal in the next few days,which is 36 degrees. I don't think we've even seen  32 degrees for 2 or 3 weeks.

I also have a cold. It's not too terribly bad, but not too much fun either. I keep working because we have to get any demos ordered for 2009 done by tomorrow. Still, I'm not really excited by tomorrow. We've been having so many traffic accidents when it snows because people just can't seem to slow down. They forget that when the temperature is in the teens, the snow is going to freeze when it hits the ground. When it snows, we've been getting 150 accidents a day. You'd think by now, people would figure out that they're doing something wrong.  Unfortunately,winter has at least 2 months more to go.

Another Year Nearly Gone

It's hard to believe that we're almost through with another year. Actually. we're on the brink of a new decade! It seems like just a while ago that everyone was stressing about the new millenium and whether all the computers would crash when the date changed to 2000.  Now here we are, about to finish the "ought" decade. No more 01s or 03s. We're going into 2010.

I was reading one of my favorite op-ed columnests this morning. He suggested that we call this last decade the zero  decade since that was pretty much the extent of any kind of progress we Americans have made, on any front. I have to admit, I think he's right. We are seeming to be unable to learn from our mistakes and keep repeating them, expecting that "this time" it will come out right. Isn't that the definition of insanity?

I keep trying to think if I'm learning anything myself. I hope so, but sometimes I'm not too sure. After Christmas, I thought that the holiday was a celebration of love. God gave us his Son, to show His total Love for His Creations. The least we can do, other than love Him back, is to love one another, each of us, whether lovable or not.

I'm not sure whether to make any New Year's resolutions. I usually break them and make the same ones every year. This year, I think I'll put "gratitude" at the top of my list. It's amasing how being grateful can help your outlook on life. Even if the only thing you can find to be grateful for is being alive and breathing, that's a pretty big deal. Maybe you can only be glad that you didn't fall out of bed or that you've got something to eat for breakfast, even though it might not be what you quite wanted. You can still be grateful you're not going to starve today. Some days it can be hard to find something to be grateful for, but the more you practise, the more you'll find to be grateful for. If you can only find one silly thing to be glad about, so be it. Be glad about it, tomorrow will be better, sooner or later.

I had to work Christmas Eve this year and I tried to be upbeat, but I was just basically grouchy about the whole thing. I only had to work about 4 and 1/2 hours, but I had to work so hard being nice to people. It wasn't their fault I had to work, after all. I was exhausted at the end of my shift. I discovered that it really is harder work to be a grouch than to be cheerful. Who knew?

Christmas Nearly Here

Strangely enough, Christmas crept up on me this year. It's strange because I work in the retail sector and we push Christmas from just after Halloween. In fact that's probably why I didn't notice how close it was. Just suddenly, it was only days away. Since I work in a warehouse store, we're about 3 months or more ahead in our stocking. We now have patio furniture in recieving and garden decorations out in the floor. It's no wonder I can't keep track of the days.

This year, I'm working both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. I've done New Year's Eve before. It's not really bad, since I don't really do much for the holiday. I tried "First Night" celebrations, but it's just too cold.

My Christmas celebrations have sure changed with the years. As a child, I was excited about Santa, then grew up a bit. I was still excited about gifts, but enjoyed other parts of the holiday. After growing up and starting a family, I had lots of fun seeing Christmas through my children's eyes,then through my Grand Children's eyes. Now, with not much family left here, and my Son and his family in another state,Christmas is changed again.  I find myself looking for some new ways to celebrate the holiday. Maybe next year, I'll include the needy more than I have before. If I do that, I'll have to start earlier, and plan better. It's something to think about anyway. 

Learn From History

I was reading one of Jack Krugman's colunms today. He is an economics professor, I think at Columbia and writes an op-ed column for the New York Times.  He was talking about how our legislators don't seem to learn from history, even when it is recent history. During the last vote on regulating banking with some small restrictions, every single Republican voted no, and something like 27 Democrats voted no.

You want to wonder where these people have been for the last year. Have they been visiting another planet? Maybe they have their heads in the sand.

After the first "great depression" in the 30s, the government imposed regulations on lending. It kept things going pretty well until the Reagan era, when free enterprise became the new idol and could do no wrong.Regulations were less and we got the savings and loan fiasco that the American people had to pay to fix. Then came the sub-prime loans and the housing bubble and we're still reeling from that. It seems that there are plenty of things to blame for the depression besides lack of regulation and greed. Let's blame the poor people who somehow hoodwinked the mortgage companies into loaning them money they couldn't pay back. It has to be the victim's fault, right? Our upstanding bankers with thier huge bonuses couldn't do anything wrong.!

Of course, the Republicans vote no on everything. Let's not give Obama any slack at all.The sooner the Democrats are gone and the Republicans are back in power, the sooner we can get back to business as usual, letting the free market take care of everything, like health care where they're doing so well. Let the market take care of policing and the prisons, and our infra-structure. Surely, all the altruistic business men will have out country whipped back into shape.  I know that's not quite fair, as there are some businesses and businessmen who do care and give back to the country. Too bad there aren't more of them.

Book Signing

Sarah Palin was in town yesterday, 12/9,for a book signing at Costco. People spent Tuesday night outdoors in temperatures of 3 degrees, just to make sure they got a signed book. Ms Palin was only slated to be about 3 hours at the signing. Now, I wouldn't walk across the street in warm weather to see Sarah Palin, much less buy her book, so obviously, I wasn't there. Also not there was the chairman of the Utah GOP. He couldn't even get in touch with her people until the day before she was to arrive, when he recieved an email telling him she wouldn't have time for a meeting. To be fair, that's probably true, and she is traveling with part of her family, including her baby,who needs care. I imagine that a book signing is designed to see the most people in the shortest time. In any case, while I might like to see what Palin has to say, I don't plan on buying her book. Maybe I'll get a library card and check it out. That way, I don't contribute to her. She is what she is, but I don't have to like her.

Snow Day

We got a little snow last night! We got about 4 inches of light, fluffy snow on Sunday, but today's snow is more like 6 or 7 inches. It's still pretty light, but heavier to move than last sunday's snow. It's so cold! We will be lucky to break 20 degrees here in Tooele today. I've left a blanket of snow on my car hood.Hopefully, it will insulate it tonight when the low will probably be below 10 degrees, maybe 8 or 9. I certainly hope this bitter cold will not continue much longer. The Utah State Legislature and Govener don't much believe in global warming as it is. Any excuse to pass some meaningful legislation. Anyway, we got our exercise shoveling the stuff today.

On another note. I spent the last 2 nights watching Syfy's new version of Alice in Wonderland, prepared to pick it apart. It turned out, I loved it! Hopefully, they will put it out on DVD. I would certainly buy it. I really enjoyed the actors playing Alice and the Hatter.

Spinning Wheels

I don't know about other people, but there are days, even weeks and months, that I just seem to be spinning my wheels. I feel like I'm doing nothing and going nowhere. There really isn't anything wrong with doing nothing, per se. It can be very good for you if you've made that decision, or given yourself permission. You can always use a break to recharge, just sit, do nothing and open yourself to messages from your intuition, or from your "Higher Source". They're probably the same thing anyway. Unfortunately, doing nothing can become a habit. I seem to find dozens of rediculous busy work that accomplishes nothing but allowing me to waste time.

I slip into behavior patterns that are just habit, doing the same things over and over, not realising that I'm no longer getting anything out of the behaviors, or even finding enjoyment. Quite often, I'm bored and frustrated and wondering if this is all there is. I think of lots of things that might be interesting or worthwhile, but instead of following through, I'm stuck in doing things that don't really need to be done. After all, what would happen if I didn't play my games on Facebook for awhile? I might actually free up some time for doing something worth doing.

It's amazing to me how much easier it is to keep doing the same old things, even when you know those things aren't really what you want to be doing!