TheBanyanTree: Happy New Year!

[Margaret R. Kramer]

Our little beagle wasn’t doing too well yesterday.  I called our vet in the
morning, but their appointment calendar was full, so I just kept telling
myself, “It just has to run its course.”  Poor Axel spent most of the day
sleeping on the couch with snot dripping out of his nose.

I checked him around 4:00 pm and found his breathing was pretty raspy, so I
called an emergency vet clinic.  They thought I should bring him in and they
gave me the phone number to an emergency clinic that is very close to our
house.

We brought him in and waited for a while.  I had to change our dinner
reservation to a later time, and I appreciate the restaurant so much for
letting me do that, but I am a person who is chronically early, and I get
anxious if I feel like I don’t have control over my time.  So as we waited
in the examining room, my impatience was growing.  But the vet finally came
in and Axel’s vitals all checked out; no temp, heart rate normal, and
breathing normal.  He was OK,  just very congested.  She prescribed an
antibiotic and offered to look at him today (at no charge) if he wasn’t
doing well.  We paid $126 for our piece of mind (these places are not cheap)
and managed to get Axel home in plenty of time to poop, eat, and take his
first pill before we left for the restaurant.

It wasn’t bitterly cold on New Year’s Eve for a change.  Usually the weather
seems to know New Year’s Eve is the night to be out and about and will send
some extremely cold air our way, but last night, it was in the upper 20s, no
wind, and a picture postcard evening with thick snow clinging to every pine
branch.

We had a great dinner (filet mignon for me and chicken cordon bleu for Ray).
Then we came home and watched TV.  I managed to stay up and watch the news,
but neither Ray nor I stayed up until midnight.  2006 arrived without us to
witness it.

We’ll straighten up the house for our serious “hopefully they will buy this
house” people.  Then we’ll go somewhere while they’re here.  Then we’ll come
home and take down the Christmas decorations and put them away for next year
(and hopefully, they’ll be used in our new house).

I try to keep my New Year’s resolutions simple.  Last year I resolved to
watch less TV.  I think I met that one.  I stopped watching the news on TV
in the morning before I went to work.  Whenever I am in Raleigh, NC, I do
not turn on the TV in the hotel room.  I would still like to designate a
night without any TV, but that didn’t go over too well with Ray.  Perhaps I
can expand on this resolution this year and not watch TV during dinner.  We
tend to watch the news while we eat, since I can’t stay up for the 10:00 pm
news, but I have realized, the earth will still turn if I don’t catch the
news on TV everyday.  I always read the paper, so I can get my news by
reading.

My second resolution was to see a financial planner, which I did not do.  My
finances are a mess and I need to get them straightened out, so I’ll slide
this resolution over to this year and see what I can do with it.  Enough
said.

One of my new resolutions is to try to take a photograph each day of
SOMETHING interesting.  Jim Brandenburg’s book Chased by the Light consists
of photographs he shot each day during a three month period in northern
Minnesota.  I’m not that artistic, but daily photos could document my life
in 2006 along with my notes.

Two other resolutions I would like to do is to take Axel to obedience
classes and I think if he’s over his kennel cough by the end of January,
that should be doable.  The second is to take a writing class for ME.  In
other words, expand my social life.  I’m way too introverted and I feel for
my mental and physical health, I should try to spend time with people.  This
one could slide into next year if we sell and move.

I always feel I have tons of time at the beginning of each year.  I’ll have
time to work on my scrapbook, I’ll have time to write poetry again, I’ll
have time to really decorate my house, I’ll have time to cook great meals
every night, and I’ll have time to take classes.  Then, real life catches
up, and I find I barely have enough time to do much of anything extra except
go to work and take care of the basics.  Already, January’s calendar is
filling up with STUFF, and it won’t be too long, like by Friday of this
week, that I’ll feel overwhelmed with everything and just go with the flow.

But at this moment, 2006 is a blank slate.  No point worrying about what
hasn’t happened yet.  Happy New Year, everyone!

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net

http://www.bpwmn.org
Business and Professional Women of Minnesota

We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a
list of work to be done, cracks to be patched.  Maybe this year, to balance
the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for
flaws, but for potential.
~Ellen Goodman