Boy, another year is about to end. Is it just me or does time seem to be going faster? Does it go faster when you are older? No fair. Or have I just settled into a routine of things? Not enough crises in my life? Okay, watch out, Jo, you don't want alert the Entity-in-Charge-of-These-Things that you haven't had enough crises lately. No more, thank you. I'm feeling just fine about this lack of terror and problems. I've earned this space of serenity and well-being. New Year's Resolutions for me? Nope. Don't do that anymore. I started too many New Year's out with promises of sticking to a diet only to fail a week, or a day later, and spiraling down into a morass of loathing and depression. Nope. I'm glad that I finally found fat-acceptance. And smoking? Don't do that either. As a teenager, I smoked. Did for about three years. Then when I got pregnant for the first time, smoke made me too nauseous to continue. Good thing, too, because that was before the awareness of how smoking affects the fetus. I couldn't even be around anyone else's smoking. I've been thankful ever since that I never went back to smoking. Let's see. What other vices are there that people resolve to give up? Gambling. Nope, never could get into that. Sex? No, I have the sex I want, enough of it, and with the only person I want to have it with. Lying, stealing, cheating. No, that's just not me. I'm not perfect, though. I've given the little white lie every now and then. But not enough to have to resolve to quit it. Spending too much money? Again, not my problem. Hmm, the only thing that I do too much of is sitting here at this computer. But is that a vice? Some could say that it is. But even if some of you out there start writing in and telling me it is a vice, I'm not gonna listen. I like this vice. It appears to be the only vice I have so let me have it! I could have a lot more worse ones. Finally, I went out and did my grocery shopping. Boy, the store was crowded. Maybe stocking up on booze? But you don't find the hard stuff at the grocery store. The only booze I bought was a two-four of Labatt Blue. Two-four is Canadian for a case of beer. When I got home from shopping and doing all the other errands I had laid out for myself, the weather had finally worked its dismal spell on me. Bill came home from lunch at 1:30, a rather late hour for him but a blessing for me. He unloaded all the groceries, bless his agile body. He scrounged around for lunch items while I sorted out grocery items. I rooted around for the refrigerated stuff to put away first. I was too achy to deal with the other commodities. After he went back to work, I succumbed to the bedroom where I got my mind off the aches by watching some shows I had taped. For dinner, I made too ambitious a meal--cocktail meatballs, roasted vegetables, and spinach quiche bites. All of it had to be done in the oven and at varying temperatures. Once again, we had dinner on the table at 9:00. Dang! Hate that. It's too late to really enjoy what I've cooked. But that didn't leave much of an evening left to have to wait for midnight. I got into downloading tubes for Paint Shop Pro. PSP is an amazing program. I didn't pull myself away from the computer till five minutes before midnight. Bill was already in the bedroom watching TV. At midnight, we kissed. It just wouldn't be a New Year without getting a kiss from your honey. Above the uproar of celebrations on the TV, I started hearing loud sounds from outside. I went out on the front porch to hear all the New Year's greetings from the neighborhood. Just like it should be. Noisy, loud, celebrating. Nobody on our street was doing a thing to make noise but from the north, east and south there were loud rumbles of fireworks and I don't know what else. I hadn't heard so much noise at midnight for a couple of years. It was like old times. My dad used to unsheath his police revolver, go outside, and shoot a couple of rounds in the yard. Mind you, this was back in the '60's when they probably weren't as strict about firing their pistols. The most memorable noise making I can remember from my days with a house full of kids was when Lee was in the band and played the Sousaphone. You know, the big huge tuba. He went out on the porch and blew into that thing as loud as he could. Then he and his friend Lee took a walk around the block. We could hear him all the way. Our phone rang at 12:08. It was Todd wishing us a Happy New Year. I had thought about calling them but thought they might have been in bed. Sleeping, not the other. Well, they could have just as well been doing the other. Lately, they've been doing it like bunnies (to use a John Prine phrase) because they are hoping to get pregnant. I enjoyed that they thought of us. Didn't hear a word from the rest of the tribe. But that's not unusual. So, the lights have gone out on the year 2002. Gee, remember all the flap about Y2K? Wasn't that a fizzle? Kinda miss all the excitement associated with those kind of bungles. But, like I said, earlier, I'm liking this calm. This stability. Gives me a nice restful pause before the next big crisis hits. Oh, and believe me, it will be coming. It always comes when I'm deep into a peaceful spell. Sigh. Think positive, Jo, think positive.