2021 Life Logs, Day 1: Happy New Year
Date: Friday, January 1, 2021
Weather: Cloudy; High 41, Low 38 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Last year on New Year’s Day I wrote, “I think we all know that 2020 is going to be tumultuous year with all the political chaos.” Little did I know just what chaos we would all have to face. But we have made it this far, so we just need to keep on doing what we have been doing to keep ourselves and others safe from Covid. I am not sure what we can do about the political situation other than wait patiently for January 20th to come and go peacefully. Even with a new administration, things are going to be bumpy, but I have never been so anxious for a Presidential inauguration. I just keep hanging onto Biden’s words of hope.
My father mandated that we live on New Year’s Day as we want to live throughout the coming year. I think I am finally old enough to ignore his mandate and I did as I pleased today. Shadow and I got up at 7:00 am for our morning constitutional and then we went back to bed for a couple of hours. My father would not have been happy with that. When I did get up, I was a good girl and did my morning exercises. Then I had pumpkin pie with whipped cream for first breakfast. I hope this will not become a habit! Next there was a longer walk with Shadow, a couple of hours fighting with my computer trying to clear up email space, a healthy second breakfast of my green smoothie, followed by 35 minutes on the exercise bike, and finally another long walk with Shadow. And I did spend a fair amount of time being distracted by the jigsaw puzzle on the dining table. This should be an easy puzzle, but I am finding myself challenged . . . but I shall persist. Shadow and I played fetch for a bit and walked down to the dock to watch the swans feed, and before I knew it, the sun was setting and it was time to think about dinner. About that time, I got a text from Heather asking if I was planning to come over for dinner. I readily took that as an invitation and accepted. This meant I had to comb my hair, brush my teeth, and get out of my exercise clothes into something more appropriate for dinner. Yep, I didn’t brush my teeth or comb my hair until 5 pm. I am positive that my dad would not be happy about that, but I had a perfectly wonderful day unbrushed and uncombed! I did make a traditional sauerkraut and sausage dish to take to Heather’s. When I got there I asked Jonah and Ollie to find a dime, shine it up, and put it in the sauerkraut. When they asked why, I simply said it is tradition. And the person who gets the shiny dime with their serving of sauerkraut and sausage will have a prosperous year. They looked at me like I was crazy, but they were quite excited when they saw that Heather got the dime. As far as I know, this is an old Southern tradition. It used to be salted and quartered onions, smoked hog howl, heads of cabbage, and pots of black-eyed peas. But a jar of Bubbies sauerkraut and a couple of links of uncured, all natural sausage (Is there really any such thing?) with some sauteed onions and potatoes is my modern day version. For me, having this on New Year’s Day is just as important as staying up until midnight on New Year’s Eve to watch the ball drop. And after dinner, we had great fun trying to answer the questions to the New York Times great 2020 news quiz. It came with my December 30th quick version of the New York Times online. I gave it a go this afternoon and knew only about half the answers. I was surprised that Jonah and Ollie were so interested in this, but we only got through 12 questions tonight. They want to continue with the other 18 questions the next time I am over. I was quite impressed with their current affairs knowledge base.
Sleep in, eat some things that are bad for you and some things that are good for you, exercise, exercise, exercise, play with your pet, walk down to the water to watch the swans feed, fight with your computer, challenge yourself mentally, hold tight to traditions, and remember to comb your hair and brush your teeth. So goes life here in The Cottage in 2021. Life is good. Happy New Year to all.
