Slouching toward a New Year

The township plow cleared the snow right down to the ice coating on the road. Snow mixed with  freezing rain or drizzle will do that to a roadway. It also coated the cement path to the dog run. Spring looks far away at the moment but we can hope a January thaw will melt us down to pavements and the rest of winter’s precipitation will fall only as snow.

Blowing snow early this morning involved almost constant readjustment to keep the snow blower and  the operator upwind of the blown snow. The drive got cleared so the Better Half could go watch the  granddaughter. Of course, the township plow didn’t come by until we cleared the drive and it refilled the bottom six feet or so. Later this afternoon we’ll go clean up that mess so we can better deal with tomorrow’s forecast snow storm. Sigh! In fact, we’re getting some snow showers as this is being written. I hope we get enough  cooperation from Mother Nature to have a small bonfire on New Year’s Eve or Day to compensate for the one we didn’t light at Solstice. Stay tuned!

a past year’s Solstice fire

Photo by J. Harrington

Harry the beagle, the Better Half’s recent rescue, has legs that are only about six or eight inches long. Three or four inches of snow for Harry is akin to knee deep for me. I feel for the little guy  and do my best to cut  him some slack during our  walks. Harry’s head doesn’t quite reach my lab cross SiSi’s shoulder so they look a lot like Mutt and Jeff walking along the road’s edge.

Again this year we’re going  to use the time between Christmas and New Year’s to take inventory, set some priorities for next year, and try to get organized. Samuel Beckett has captured the outcomes of many of our previous such efforts.

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”

It’s only when we stop trying that we’ve actually failed, right? 

New Year

By Michael Prior

I've resolved last year's resolutions

watching this bonfire fail to flame.

I've ignored December's iterations,

unsolved my consolations:

a card, a call, a paper crane's blame-

less fractions of the same.

I can't solve for time's absolutions

watching these embers fail to flame.

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