Day 1 of 365

Looking at the world in this a new year the landscape is covered in white.  About two centimeters of fresh powder snow fell (or wafted from the sky or whatever other term you would like to describe the various flake’s descent-oh any you could say an inch also if that would make you feel more comfortable).  

As I am working the keys of the computer I am sitting at a marble table in the kitchen’s nook. My writing station has become this space.  Perching here provides me an unfettered view of the world outside.  Having my back to the stove and the sink this seat on the other hand does not allow me much in the way of privacy in my thought. The lack of solitude is disturbing.  The troubling part is not so much that I need privacy as that I don’t want people reviewing what I write before I am done.

Outside the window in the early morning cold sits the blue family car.  I have already gone outside and broomed light snow off of it. Beyond the car sits the rough and raw wood pile of tree pieces. Over several days I pulled these from out of my drive onto the berm.  These limbs and branches, some quite substantial, fell during the ice storm. To the right is my view is my neighbor’s wood pile that lies across the snow covered street.    The wood that sits there exceeds my pile by a factor of three.  My neighbor straight across has no pile for she had an arborist come cut and grind the large number of trees that fell in her yard.  If she had done as we have done her pile of now dead wood would have been far larger than our conjoined piles.

I have already brushed some of last night’s snowfall away.  The cold white lying upon my drive and sidewalks is light and shoveling is not required.  I had to make a way to get out to the garbage can the receptacle here in the kitchen being full.

All in all this looks lovely.  It looks as a photograph of a clean, safe winter should look.  In small stints I will most likely finish removing at least my portion of the snow sitting at the front of my home.  Later I will have to cut a path to the compost in the back yard.  Also I agreed to have my son clear my neighbor’s property.  He has not proved effective at that task. Sigh.

Last night 2013 ended with a whimper.  The ball dropped on Times Square and I stayed up to watch that minute of television.  For the rest of the time I was texting and posting on social media. Funny thing I was posting links about moving away from social media. 

The only real gripe I had with the article I posted's key points is that it implied people don’t want to know what we are doing every minute, we just aren’t that interesting. While I agree with the basic sentiment I think it misses the point.  We aren’t so much looking at the individual events that our friends are engaging in as it is the arc of their life we are monitoring.  

I don’t read the items in the stream of postings of an old high school friend because I want to know where he or she had coffee.  I am more interested in are their kids getting married? Do they have grandchildren? Have things befallen them like the loss of a spouse and how have they reacted?  It is interesting to see if people I knew way back when are made of the stuff I thought they were.  For the most part I smile gently because the people who interested me way back when are showing themselves to be of good solid stock.

I took a break here to sweep some more snow.

The sidewalks are clear now on this old grey day.  It is the start of another cycle, the start of another month, the start of another week and the start of another day. No real resolutions for me, just a hope I can get to this keyboard a little more often.  I will celebrate the day, watch a football game and then it is back to work tomorrow.  My best to all of you.