Happy New Year!

I just wanted to chime in for a second and wish everyone a happy 2006, with best wishes for the year ahead. More later.

LATER: I think everything else I want to say today is little stuff that could be lumped together in the form of a cornucopia...or maybe a mishmash, potpourri or smorgasbord. (Way to go, Kev--use up all the synonyms for the entire year on January 1--Ed.) I guess that means it's time to do one of those bullet-point thingies:

• Coming home from the Final Burrito of 2005, I took a glimpse of my street. It was dark--too dark. Why were all the streetlights out? And for that matter, why were all my Christmas lights out? As I pushed the remote button for the garage door, it hit me: Crap. the power's out on the entire street. Sounds like a wonderful way to ring in the new year. But wait--as if magic, just as I was about to get out and try to open the garage door manually, Kev's Winter Playland (a.k.a. my little illuminated reindeer in a "fence" of lights hanging from candy-cane-striped poles) came to life once again. Crisis averted.


• I think I'm going to have a party on April 15. After all, it only makes sense, seeing as how I did my taxes last night (not the whole thing, mind you, but I did compute the whole year's worth of earnings). I'm at the point in life where I don't necessarily mind staying in on New Year's Eve if I'm not gigging, and I figured that I might as well do something productive. (And no, I normally wouldn't save the whole year's worth of computations until the end, but I lost everything up through August in the hard-drive crash back on Labor Day, so I was in fact "rebuilding" the entire year last night.) Doing that much math at one time is a real beating for me, so I'm glad it only happens once a year or so.


• Oh, and for those of you who've visited me recently, you'll be happy to know that Mount Boxmore--the big pile of shipping boxes that was threatening to eat my living room--has been dismantled. I don't think Tasha was too happy about that, since she'd taken to sleeping there recently. It seems odd that I slacked supremely this entire past week, and here I am getting all this stuff done on what's supposed to be a holiday.


• It feels weird to be cheering for the Philadelphia Eagles this afternoon, but that's exactly what I'm doing. Evidently, they need to beat Washington in order for the Cowboys (who will then subsequently need to win their own game tonight) to make the playoffs.


• While taking the usual afternoon walk at Firewheel (and what a great day for it, with temperatures nearing 80), I was surprised to notice that a store had already gone out of business there (it was this place, in case you're curious). I'll admit that I never actually went in there (though I'd planned to eventually), but it always smelled interesting and had some unusual-looking stuff in the window. It's hard to believe that it didn't even hang in there for three months.


• Speaking of Firewheel, I don't think that there's been a car-pedestrian incident yet (I guess people from the 'burbs have actually figured out how to behave--as drivers or walkers--in a pseudo-urban situation), but I almost saw an SUV-motorcycle mishap today. What was interesting was that after the near-miss, the motorcyclists (a guy and presumably his wife) went up alongside the SUV and started shouting at the driver, saying that someone could have been killed. I wasn't close enough to ask this--and probably wouldn't if I had been, since both riders were pretty big--but the though did occur to me that, if they were so worried about being killed, why weren't they wearing helmets?


• I really need to reset my sleeping habits, starting tonight. I've fallen back into my natural night-owl ways--staying up till 4, sleeping till 11--during this break, and Wednesday morning will hit me like a lead balloon if I don't start getting back to "normal." I did make about half of church this morning; I was impressed that the worship center was over three-fourths full, though the freeways on the way in were nearly deserted.

Oh, and as for resolutions--I don't really do 'em per se, but next time, I'll talk about what I would resolve to do were I so inclined.

UPDATE: In case you weren't able to enjoy the real thing last night (perhaps because of grass fire danger, like out here), Dave Barry's Blog once again links to a cool online fireworks display.

QUOTE OF THE (YESTER)DAY: "Maybe Y2K finally happened, six years too late."--Dingus, upon our arrival at my darkened street.