Another new year

Happy New Year! It’s another new year, another convenient moment to re-start, re-jig, recommit, etc. At this point, while the newly-arrived year is still fresh and shiny, we have no idea what shape it’ll be at the end of the year. And, of course, not everyone has the same kind of year as everyone else: One person’s awful year can be someone else’s most awesomest ever. Regardless, this is our chance to start to create the sort of year we’d like it to be, if the fates allow.

The photo up top is of Leo and me at 10:30 last night. By that time, I was getting a little bored waiting for 2023, and Leo? Well, as I said when I shared the photo at the time, he was in it for the treat he knew he’d get.

I ended up watching some TV, having a bit of wine, and some nibbles I made for myself. Three houses near me had parties last night (that I knew of…): The house directly across the street from mine (our driveways are directly opposite), a rental house a few doors farther down the street, and the house directly behind mine.

The folks in the two houses on my street parked on the grass in front of their houses to give their guests some more room to park (in-street parking is fairly limited in this development). However, the living areas of the houses across the street from me are all at the back of the houses, so I never heard anything.

The only party I heard was the house directly behind mine, and that was only because their covered outdoor area has a high, vaulted roof that has the effect of amplifying the voices of people sitting under it. It’s not obnoxious, but I could hear voices sometimes, especially when a woman laughed loudly. The noise wasn’t an issue of any kind—just something I noticed.

At midnight, people in the area started setting off fireworks, but that didn’t last long. By 12:30am or so, the whole area was completely quiet.

The folks who’d attended the parties at the two houses across the street spent the night, which I thought was particularly responsible, and it was something Nigel and I also did at our houses (when we had family around for a party, it was often an overnight thing for at least some of the guests).

The photo below is of me and my obligatory glass of bubbles at midnight—and it’s my first selfie of 2023. Technically, I suppose the photo up top was my last selfie of 2022, but I generally don’t think of my photos with Leo as being the same as a selfie. Still, they're inarguably the last photo I took in 2022 and the first one of 2023, respectively.

At any rate, a new year has begun, and the first full day of it is about to draw to a close. The first of many repeats‚ hopefully. Personally, I think hope is probably the most important thing to begin a new year with.