Yet Another New Year - Here We Go!

It's hard to believe it already has been five days since the arrival of 2012. If that's any indication, I have a feeling a lot of this year is going to fly right by. I have no idea where 2011 went, but go it did, so here we are.

The holidays were fairly low key out here in Country Contemporary land. We managed to squeak through the last weeks of December without any of the snow that descended so strangely in late October. I'll take it. I'm not a big snow fan, and heaven knows, after Irene's and Lee's visits, and an unusually wet summer season, we do NOT need that much snow. The creeks and streams are full to bursting still - very atypical for winter, when we usually just have a minor trickle. That's when the snows of winter and their melting in Spring becomes so crucial. Well, if we see any significant snows this winter, we're going to have some very BIG trouble come the warmer temperatures of Spring.

For my part, I'm just glad that - for the moment - we have not had any of the issues that make winter so treacherous. I'm very fond of bare pavement on the roads and that hasn't been a problem so far this season. Huge relief here.

In fact, while it has been unusually warm in November and December, we've had our first real winter chills in the past few days, with overnight temperatures being in the single digits and wind chills below zero in some areas. That said, it was in the 40s last week, and the forecast for the weekend is expected to hit that level, and flirt with 50 on Saturday. I can't tell you how happy that makes me. With every passing warmer-than-normal day we have, we're that much closer to Spring, as the minutes of daylight we see continue to lengthen.

We rounded that bend on the winter equinox late last month, and no sooner did we set the clocks back in early November (now implemented blissfully a week later than in years past - I view that as a perfect global birthday gift for my personal early November celebration), and we flipped the switch just a few weeks later (well, about six weeks later) to recapture a few more minutes of daylight in late December. All of these temporal landmarks make me supremely happy...well, as happy as I can be during my least favorite season of the year.

Here's hoping that this New Year will bring us all warm sunshine, blue skies, and a few extra minutes each day to stop, reflect on our blessings, and bask in the glow of the possibilities of the year ahead.

Cheers & Happy New Year!