It’s the New Year, time of resolutions and retrospectives and goal-setting. Everyone’s so motivated. Me, I’m just howling at the moon. Literally, and loudly, to my children’s embarrassment. But it’s so FULL! And bright! A blue moon. What a way to end a year! And what a way to start one. It’s fun to be starting off the year with something that happens so seldom. We’ve had unbelievably cold temperatures all this past week and it is COLD. I just looked at the thermometer and it’s minus 9 Celsius. That’s 15.8 Fahrenheit. Brrrr!
We left an hour early for the movie tonight (Sherlock Holmes: great fun!) and walked around Lund in the freezing cold. Even bundled up, my cheeks hurt after 15 minutes and I could feel my knees. In fact, I can still feel my knees. Isn’t it funny how pain and cold are the two things that make us realize there are so many body parts we don’t usually pay any attention to?
There weren’t any stores open besides the candy store (around the corner from the movie theater) and the movie rental place and places to eat. The movie theater itself was jam-packed. Jam-packed. Do you suppose that originally meant “packed like jam”? Must check. Hmmm…Webster’s doesn’t give the origin, just that it’s from 1924, which is pretty darn recent.
The moon was bright and silver, high in the sky. It was sunny all day today, clear blue and windy. We have so much frost on the ground that it looks like snow. There are only a few snow scabs left, but the ones that are still around are frozen completely solid. Anders is talking about getting out his long-distance skates since it’s perfect skating weather: freezing temps with no snow. I hope we get some more snow soon. We WERE promised more, but it’s too cold for it right now. I have to say I sure don’t mind the sunshine, though.
We’ve been pretty lazy, all told, the past couple of days, and I suspect we’ll continue the trend for another couple, while gradually getting more and more motivated. Today, I started getting the urge to begin untrimming the tree and packing up Christmas decorations. I even talked about some projects I’d like to start: closet cleaning, shelf purging…you know the kind of thing. I have a week with no work and school doesn’t start for several more days, though Anders is back to work the day after tomorrow. Karin is outraged that she has to start already on Thursday: Martin gets to wait until the 11th. So unfair!
I keep thinking about work and am having to restrain myself from checking email. I NEED a week off of it and a week to unwind and just read books and putter and talk with my mom. See friends. Maybe clean a closet, maybe not. Motivation is welcome but I don’t want it all at once. I still need time for howling: arrooooooo!