It's been a cold winter in Southern California (and I'm not the only one saying this). The days surrounding New Year's have been gray; days where it feels much better to lounge around the house in layers than to venture outside; of course, for the Rose Parade, the weather was warm, clear and bright, with our local mountains covered in snow as the “White Christmas” backdrop for our palms and ready-to-harvest orange trees. The next day; gray again. I've been moving slowly; my body feeling the effects of way too many desserts and not enough self-control. (Remarkably, number of donuts consumed: one.) The cold makes me tired. Yesterday, Chance the Dog was more than happy to take a winter's nap with me. Sleeping is one of his favorites and he's more than happy to have a nap buddy. (If dogs were in charge of things, nothing would get done, but we'd be much more relaxed and happy. )

Today, the sky was blue and it was actually warm out for a few hours. We took our Christmas lights down and dismantled the tree. I feel like I've been inching my way into the new year. This week, I'm serving jury duty, and since my group wasn't called for Monday, we'll be heading off to the observatory where we'll gain some perspective on our place in the universe and relative unimportance (mere specs). Compared to Jupiter, the Earth and its inhabitants are like the Whos of Whoville. My jury duty week coincides with Charlie's last week of vacation. (An up side to his new school: an extra week of vacation to make up for starting a week earlier than the rest of his friends).

As I look to the year before me, I hope to keep getting rid of unnecessary stuff around the house. Husband's been going through his vast shoe collection (vast because it never gets culled), and my trunk is full with the second round of bags to take to Goodwill. If I were the resolution-making type (which I'm not), one resolution I'd make would be to try to live in the here and now instead of always looking around the corner for what's coming next.

It's cold tonight. We're done with gray. Unfortunately, it's not done with us.

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