After the sandwiches, the soup and the turkey delight casserole, my new year’s resolution is: ‘I’m finished with turkey forever.’
Tried a little ice fishing over the holidays, got smart and used the chain saw to cut through the ice.
Got dumb and stood behind it, thus soaking myself thoroughly when I hit water turning myself into a human icicle.
Also got one helluva shock plugging in the Christmas lights this year, something wrong with the outside socket. My hair actually stood on end, giving a whole new meaning to the phrase: “Lighten Up!”
Got together with neighbours our age for the New Year’s celebration.
None of those funny hats, noisemakers and (supported by liquid refreshments), strident attempts to be happy, like we did in our youth.
Nope, nobody wanted to count backwards from 10, we all wanted to be in bed by ten.
So we sat around the campfire chatting like Girl Guides, looking at the full moon and setting off a few fireworks, to dog barks and resounding echoes among the hills.
Unfortunately, one rocket went sideways and ended up in a snowbank.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Skeena the black Lab retrieved it, running off down the road while it was still spewing sparks.
A couple of us chased her expecting her head to blow off at any second, but fortunately, the rocket fizzled out.
Cheers went up! Carmen called in the proceedings; ‘The Pressy Lake Symphony of Fire.’
We held our first skating party over the holidays and built a rink on the lake, inviting all our neighbours to come.
The crowd included about 30 people from eight to 80.
There were hot dogs and hot chocolate for the kids gleefully standing around the bonfire where their constant poking at it with sticks set showers of sparks into the air adding to the festive occasion.
Got a rough and tumble hockey game going and I was put to tend goal, (having not displayed any aptitude at either passing the puck, or being much of a hockey player.) My slap shot sucked, said one kid. Anyhow, I managed to stop a few pucks, just as long as I could see them coming for five minutes.
Now it would not be a good party without sending someone to the hospital and we sent two ladies with broken arms. After you haven’t been on skates for 20 years…well!
They gracefully said they had a great time up till then. We have now started the tradition of the Little Pressy Lake Annual Broken Arm Skating Party.
The other mishap was that a flock of children ate all the rum balls before the adults could get to them.
This created an unusually giddy atmosphere, which rubbed off on the six dogs, present, making things slightly hazardous when trekking to the bathroom.
About 10 years ago I started to keep track of my time.
(I tried to keep track of how I spent my money too, but that led nowhere. I spent it just the same.)
So every New Year’s day, I look over my calendar and see how my past year went. It’s quite revealing, as I am able to gauge what I put most of my time into and what seemed most relevant or important to me.
As they say, where your attention is, you are. The first year I did it I was shocked at how much television I watched.
The following year I managed to cut my TV time in half and a year after that, by a third.
What was amazing to me however, was how much time I spent doing things like working, reading, gardening and what not, as compared to other years.
I usually spent the same amount of time doing the same things. Creatures of habit they say?
You bet, if I am to go by my time sheet. It is then I resolve to change some habitual patterns. “But you can’t just throw bad habits out the window,” to paraphrase Mark Twain; “You have to drag them down the stairs one step at a time, kicking and screaming.”
