The celebration of New Year is always a bit of a mystery to me. I know on January 2nd the same issues and problems that beset me in December are still with me and that truth quickly leads a lot of people to some sort of regret or despair. Circumstances do not change with the calendar.
However you do need time to reflect at points in life and while March 18th or August 3rd does as well as December 31 - possibly better depending on your level of celebration, for most it is the beginning of a new calendar year where that retrospection is done. So I go along.
I have an annual weight loss effort, not a big deal but the holiday eating adds a bit and that needs to come off, usually in a month or three. I also often pick out something I want to learn, last year I started carving. This year, a bit more knowledge about cooking or baking. Even though the Year of Learning Pie Making was sort of a disaster. I also enjoy - who knew - the carving so that will increase and I hope to gain some skill there. The painting of the carvings which I did not consider at first really needs to improve.
My reading for pleasure is consistent over many years - about 55 books a year, however, I am going to add more history and back off a bit from so many mysteries. But not my favorite writers! And, as usual, re-read C. S. Lewis. I will need to find a new home for another 150 or so of my church centric library so if you are interested, text me.
Photographically, my goal is to always produce more consistent and more pleasing (to me) photos. To that end, while always hopeful of more travel, great light, and a huge moose to walk past, I am determined to get out twice each week specifically to take images. I am not thrilled with Raleigh from that stand point. Urban grittiness and suburban sameness are not something I would wish to do often, occasionally it is fine. I intended to shoot at the two gardens in Raleigh and the one at Duke last year and they closed in March and have stayed closed so that did not work out. There is a state park near us, while it is not an inspiring place for photography I am sure I can do better than I have in the past there. Otherwise driving 30 or 40 minutes is the norm so I hope to explore more of the smaller parks that dot the town and some additional portions of the greenway. Never-the-less shooting intentionally twice a week is the goal. I’ll let you know how long that lasts, especially with work starting again on January 4th.
For trips, I really hope we can escape the virus restrictions and those dictates become less needed each day and that brings me to the biggest event of 2021, our 50th wedding anniversary. We have decided to celebrate it in Disney -ish fashion and have a year long adventure. In January we have Kellen’s high school graduation & Cindy’s birthday. In February we travel to Florida to actually have an event at Disney with some of our family. April brings a big trip as C and I fly to Los Angeles then tour parks in CA, NV, and AZ for a week ending back in LA where I will drive back to NC with Kellen while his dad, who drove west with him, will fly back to NC with Cindy. Watch for the C-2-C-2-C adventure on TLT. Our actual anniversary is in May. We also hope in the fall to tour the northern Mid-West, spend a bit of time in our home area near Pittsburgh, travel across New England and return to our favorite place, Acadia.
I have some vague plans for Two Lane Touring web site but those will be pulled together by late January.
Still there? Happy New Year to you.
Where do we go this year?