Observation at the start of a year.

I had a brilliant draft here, entitled "Observation at the end of a year." And I hit a wrong button while editing it, just a minute ago, and lost the whole thing. Oye. Control-Z couldn’t bring it back.

2012 was, overall, a good year. I got married! [OK, any year in which I get married (1973, 1977, 2012) is officially a good year.] And while they joke that remarriage is the triumph of hope over experience, I really do believe that this time I got it right, or perhaps more accurately, that this time I was properly prepared and mindful, and therefore able to contribute toward its being right.

We have had a fairly quiet New Year’s Day. I woke up at the usual ridiculously early time and bound off the side of the ruana, then went back to bed for a couple of hours. Got up again and picked out the waste yarn so I could open up the front of the ruana and start knitting the gusset that traverses the nape of the neck and provides something of a shawl collar. I’m supposed to stop when the gusset is 100 stitches wide. I’m halfway there, which means that the gusset is one-fourth done. I am using up a ball of purple yarn, very soft and lush. If I run out of it, I will switch to the red silk blend I bought at the same shop, several months ago. Either will feel good against my neck when this is all bound off and wearable.

We have a portrait of Beloved, painted by a family friend when they lived in California in 1975 (coincidentally, the year I was baptized). He is alongside a trout stream, favorite fishing pole in hand (still has the pole), with trees and bushes in the background. I am going to hang it by the small ficus in the corner I have been working on for the past few days. I think it will look as if he is truly surrounded by nature’s wonder.

Mel and Squishy came by today and took a small load of stuff with them. The menorah is gone. The mezuzah is still on our doorjamb and will remain until I kick. The picture of Beloved with “the Pope” ~ in reality a standee at some shop in New Orleans ~ is also gone. The top of the entertainment center is nearly cleared off.

I asked Beloved where he got the bookends (which will remain), representing the Liahona (1 Nephi 16:10) and the golden plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated. His answer? A white elephant gift exchange at Empty Nesters. Truly, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure; I think the bookends are well designed and aesthetically pleasing.

Dinner tonight was black eyed peas and rice a/k/a Hoppin’ John for him, red beans and rice for me. I did eat one black eyed pea. It was significantly less vile than the last one I ate, roughly a quarter of a century ago. But I will not be raiding the fridge at midnight, for seconds.

Beloved would like to get on his computer (imagine that!), so I will post this and go dish up some ice cream.

Happy New Year, everybody!