The New Year

It is a cold, misty Sunday morning, and I really don't have much to say. I am trying to squeeze the last day of the holiday until there isn't a drop of time left. Tomorrow Mark goes back to school. Joseph goes down to Midlands Tech to get advised and sign up for classes. Bob will go back to work and face the mountain of e-mails and phone messages from people who are not familiar with the concept of Christmas holidays. I will go to two jobs and try to get everything done to close out the old year and start the new year.

Right now, I am thinking about cleaning my house, thinking about laundry, thinking about paying bills.

I won't take the tree down until Wednesday, so it sits, still glittering. It's sort of a sad, lop-sided tree. Not Charlie Brown sad, but shy, leaning back into the corner. A good tree for this year.

I guess I'd better go see if Mark has clothes to wear tomorrow. He is in between sizes, so it is a real question. I may have to hit the store this afternoon. I shake my head in denial. No more shopping! Haven't I done enough?

I guess this is the lull between Christmas and back-to-normal. From looking at other blogs, I'd say I'm not alone in this lull... the doldrums. Sitting and waiting for a wind.

God, I'm depressing myself... Back to work.

Happy New Year

The temperature outside is 25 degrees, which is quite warm for some folk, but really really cold for us in South Carolina. I get to see if my "light" L. L. Bean coat is ready for this. I think it is. After all, people in Maine wear light cotton sweaters in the summer.

It is time to get back to work. A real routine times 10, since it is TAX SEASON. Before filing begins, we will be closing books, preparing W-2s, and making sure we are caught up with all non-Tax stuff. Our fear that the tax season would be seriously delayed has been calmed. Only a few forms are affected by the delay. The IRS, monolithic bureaucracy that it is, has worked harder than Congress deserved to make sure the filing system will be in place. Although I'm glad we will be able to file most returns on time (mid-January), I am not sure the IRS isn't enabling Congress and encouraging them to continue to refuse to face tough issues. But for now, I don't care.

This holiday season has been nice, but not restful. I haven't had more than two days off in a row, and usually those days were so filled with obligations that they can't count as a vacation. I got some things done, but not close to everything. Maybe I have to be busy to get things done. Or not.