Happy 2019! My Resolutions -- or How Long Can I Last?

Do you realize that New Year's Day is probably the only worldwide holiday? Think back  to all the holidays you celebrate during the year. 

We have religious holidays such as Christmas, Easter, and Passover, but these are acknowledged by people of certain faiths. We may all get the day off at Christmas, but it isn't celebrated by everyone. Many other countries celebrate these holidays too, but it is not universal across the world.

Then we have the national holidays here in the US: Independence Day, Labor Day, and Memorial Day. Our banks are closed and government offices don't answer the phones, but cross the borders to Canada and Mexico or cross "the pond" to Europe, and they are going about their business as if it wasn't a day off. Last year, Ken and I were in Denmark for the 4th of July, and we didn't hear or see a single firecracker.

And you can't count Thanksgiving either. Canada has a Thanksgiving but it is in October, not the fourth Thursday in November. You may want to try to cite some of the shopping days such as Black Friday or Cyber Monday, but I know many men (such as my husband) who refuses to acknowledge such a holiday too. Actually even I don't shop on Black Friday. I consider it a day for amateur shoppers.

So that leaves New Year. We watch the new year march in across the globe with every top-of-the-hour countdown from New Zealand to to Hawaii. Fireworks blast from the Eiffel Tower to the Pyramids. 

So it doesn't matter where you are from, I hope you have a wonderful and prosperous New Year. I want everyone to success and be happy.

So here are some of my resolutions for the new year.

1. Lose weight. I know, I know, this is on everyone's list and by the first of February (or even sooner) it is forgotten. However, I already have a head start on this. I had surgery in October for some female stuff and I feel much better. Since mid-October, I have lost 20 pounds. I still have a long way to go, and 20 pounds is similar to taking a cup of water out of a bathtub, but I am feeling like this might actually work. Ken and I are both just "eating health" as opposed to dieting. We are followed Dr. Joel Fuhrman's program of "Eat to Live" which is beans and greens. I don't feel hunger or deprived because we can still have some sweets and meats. I will keep you advised on my progress. 

2. Knit more. I shouldn't even have to put this on the list, but there you go. I have started knitting baby hats to donate to the local hospital and take some of my other hats and scarves to a shelter too. I have so much stash that I need to use it up.

3. Buy less yarn. Speaking of stash, I have so much yarn that I could even start to make a dent if I needed to. So I will buy less yarn. Even if I go a yarn store, I often find myself saying "I already have something like this." I will still go to wool fairs and explore new books, but no more buying.

4. Buy less. And leading into that point, Ken and I are buying less. Less clothes, less junk, less stuff.  We spend a good two months a year or so ago, we destashed our house. We donated tons or clothes, furniture, small appliances, books, and even office supplied to ARC. We just refinanced our house and have more money every month, but we don't need anything. Actually between our Social Security and our rental incomes, we are making more now than we ever made working. Retirement is great.

5. Travel more. Although we took a month long trip to Europe last year, we are getting the wanderlust again. A month is too long however. By the last week, all I could think of was home, so we will limit out trips to 2 to 2 1/2 weeks. We are thinking of the Pacific Northwest again, and maybe going to New England in the fall. We even have Australia and New Zealand on our bucket list, but not this year.

6. Cuddle my cats more. This one will not be hard to accomplish.

7. Spend more time with my sons. Also not too hard to accomplish. It will mean going to Fort Collins more and a few trips to California, but that is great.

8. Read more. Since I read over 60 books last year, maybe I should scale this down to keeping even. I use GoodReads to track my books, and visit my library more than once a week.

9. Move more. This will be the hardest to keep up with. I hate exercise but if I just concentrate on just walking or moving, maybe I'll do better. Since I am already losing weight, maybe this will just come naturally.

A year in review - or lousy excuses for not keeping up with my blog

I made the scarves in blue, maroon,
purple, rose and red.

I noticed I did only two entries all that year. Not too good if I want to continue writing a blog, but it has been  a good year for my family and me

So I'll try to cover some of the highlights just so you know. And I hope to do better next year. In that light, I will write New Year's Resolutions tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Knitting
In some ways, I have lost some of my knitting mojo. I still knit but not at the frantic pace I did in preview years, especially the year after I retired. . I think it is because I have had so little success with selling that I just didn't build up my inventory. Even on Etsy, I have sold only a couple of items. I do better with patterns though. I think I will dedicate the next year to knitting for charity instead.  I did make a hat for my son and husband for Christmas and I completed lace scarves for my Divas (my women's group). I will include the pattern for the scarves in the next few days on this blog.

A before and after
of my personal journal

Writing

Even if I haven't kept up on my blog, I do keep up on my personal written journal. In addition to the writing, I print out pictures on full-sheet sticker paper and stick them into my journal. I did notice of the past year that I fill the pages more and more with stickers and less writing. I don't know what that means, but I hope I can do better there too.

Travelling
In June, Ken and I took a month-long trip, but not just any trip -- probably the trip of a lifetime. We went to Europe. It was not only sight-seeing, we visited family. We went to Swedish, Denmark, and Germany, with a short stay in Iceland and England. We also spent a week in Washington D.C. to attend Sophie's wedding. She is the daughter of my best friend Sheila. I will write most about these adventures in other blog entries.

Health
In October I had the bane of the female gender -- I had a hysterectomy, and it was one of the best things I even did. I feel so much better and I can't even describe why. But since then, I have lost 20 pounds and will continue to the future.

My son Lorne
My oldest son now lives in Los Angeles and works in Hollywood as a film editor. Late year, he got a job with BuzzFeed and he loves  it. I guess this means he won't be coming home to live anytime soon. I hate it when you raise independent children and they leave you. Alas.
If you want to see some of his work, you can go to YouTube and enter BuzzFeed Unsolved and Worth It.

My Son Dane

Dane modeling the hat I made for him.
The scarf came with the coat.

With an undergrad degree in classic guitar, Dane decided to pursue his other talent in Mathematics. (Funny, just not too many job opening for classical guitarist on Craiglist.) So he went back to school and will complete his masters in accounting this spring. He got an intern job at an accounting firm during tax season, and at the end of the flurry of returns, they offered him a full time job. So he is fully employed with a good salary even before he finishes his degree. CSU (Colorado State University) told him that they had a 100% employment rate out of this program. Guess they were not kidding.

And finally my kitties

We have had Omi and Wookie for a little over a year now, and I am passionately in love with this two little creatures. Omi is the perfect cat and Wookie is the magic cat. Omi (the black kitty) is loving and affectionate. She has to be next to me almost constantly. If I sit down, she is on my lap and will even crawl up to shoulder to get closer. Wookie is a tortie, but she is entirely and completely my cat. She doesn't like anyone else to touch her and hides even from Ken. But if I am sick, she won't leave my side, purring constantly as if her purrs will cure me. And I have always gotten better, so maybe she has something there.

A Total Eclipse of the Sun!

This is me during the total eclipse,
but you can't really see the
hole in the middle.

Ken and I traveled to Alliance, Nebraska, to meet up with my brother and nephews to see the total eclipse of the sun. What a spectacular site! Although I am sure everyone has seen videos of the moon passing in front of the sun, nothing prepares you for the scene in real time. As the moment gets close, it gets dark, but not like the dark of night or even the dark of dusk. It has a slight and strange pink tinge to it. Then you see a black hole in the sky surrounded by a ring. When you see a picture of it, part of your brain is saying it did not truly look that way; it was Photoshopped or the camera distorted it. Your mind says it is not real. But to see it in person is jarring. Someone must have placed a giant animated character in the sky.

The day started out in a fog bank, and we had partial clouds throughout the built-up to totality. But it made real unusual pictures. Fortunately, it was clear skies shortly before the big event.

 

My husband built a staging box with great success.

 Going ...

 ... going ...

 ...and almost gone.

Strangely, the worst pictures were the ones of the
total eclipse. However, my brother took some through
his telescope that were outstanding. He will be sending
those to me soon and I'll update you.

It was also a good opportunity to knit for the 3 hours to get there and the 8 hours to get home!

You are not leaving me again!

"You were gone for so long."

When we opened the door home from our three week road trip, Neko came running down the stairs mewing and crying. It was obvious that he missed us and maybe even thought we abandoned him. I had never seen him so happy when we got home. I never heard him purr louder. He wasn't alone while we were gone. We have a tenant downstairs and she spent time with him. But it wasn't the same as his daddy. He even was happy to see me. In fact, for the first time since he was a kitten, he crawled into bed with us that night. We have been home a week now, and he does not leave our sides. Maybe he has a heart after all.

Next time, you WILL take me with you.

Was that ..... Big Foot?

We should have paid
attention to the sign.

While we were in Crescent City in northern California, it rained. And it rained. And it rained. We camp in the back of our van so rain usually does not bother us. However, we camped in a redwood forest that night. All night long, the rain pounded the van roof making it very hard to sleep.

Now Ken is a realist. He explained the pounding this way. The branches of the redwood are designed to gather the rain and pool it on its needles until the water is so heavy that it falls. Therefore even a light rain can gather into big drops by the time it reaches the ground -- or the roof of our van. That's why it sounded like hail on our roof rather than just rain.

However, I have another theory. I think it was Big Foot. After all the Pacific Northwest is supposed to be crawling with them, right? I have watched some documentaries on Big Foot and one of the things they do it throw rocks at people who invade their territory. I think it was Big Foot pounding our roof with peddles and rocks to make us leave. Big Foot was persist enough to keep it up all night, but really, what else does he have to do?

See? Here is Big Foot sulking away from our camping
area. What more proof do you want!

Then Ken asked why there wasn't a pile of stones on the roof of our van. Well, that's very simple. The rain washed them all away. Duh. I just don't understand why Ken doesn't buy my explanation.

And this leads to one of the biggest questions of our time. What is the plural of Big Foot? Is it Big Feet? Big Foots? Or it is just Big Foot without the plural, just like we do for deer and elk? I guess we will have to wait until we capture one to ask him.

Crawling back into the Blog

Me with Peggy wearing our Downton Hats

I haven't posted for over a month and I have come to the conclusion that working for a living is intrusive into my knitting and my blogging! I have a great job (which I started in December), but I am exhausted by the time I get home from work. In the last month, though, I got incredibly sick with some kind of virus and am still coughing up a storm.  And I have taken two vacations. One to see a long-lost found-again friend and the other to Albuquerque.

Ken and I went to the western slope (Colorado) a couple of weeks ago to visit my old friend Peggy. We figured out that we haven't seen each other for 30 years (yikes!). Peggy moved to southern Colorado and then to Alaska which is how we lost contact with each other. And then Facebook was invented! Peggy was able to track me down when she moved back to Colorado. We used to be single together as well as play softball. It is always great to get back in touch with old friends (Not that we are old, but our friendship is!) I gave her one of my Downton hats and I am wearing the other one. Seems appropriate.

I am not even knitting that much, however I have completed another Downton hat and a pair of socks. I have also started a sweater four times now, and I am going to rip it out and start it again. What a pain in the @$$! When in Albuquerque, I did buy some purple double knit, but I am going to try again. I'll post some updated knitting pictures soon.

Back to the needles.