Happy New Year!!!
This morning is when we reap the benefits of my typical abstemious New Year’s Eve.

There is much to be said for a celebration that includes prayer, a Pinky and the Brain ‘film’ festival, followed by a nap before the uncorking of the sparkling grape juice at 11:50. And then off to bed.

Ten hours into 2007 and we’re doing OK with the resolutions:
1 - find more opportunities for prayer and sacrifice
2 - let’s all learn to return CD’s and DVD’s to their cases.

We’re going to make the disc thing work. We may not be especially well off, but we’re blessed with a lot of music, cinema and software and it’s about time to cultivate a little discipline in the care of our stuff. (I came very close to lending a friend an empty “Monster House” case for her weekend viewing entertainment. That was the second to last straw. The last straw was when I couldn’t find the empty case...but the disc turned up and I had to put it in a box with a homemade label.)

Living in an unincorporated part of the county makes us the recipient of quite a few ad hoc fireworks displays around July 4th and January 1st. The chances of being caught by the sheriff’s department are pretty slim and some of the young dudes in the neighborhood take full advantage.
So, the Roman candles and M-80’s were fun for the first couple of minutes and then they just became plain annoying. Unlike other times, when I would just pull the pillow over my head and grind my teeth, I decided to offer up my irritation for the people in the world who go to bed every night to similar sounds. Sounds that sound like those sounds but signal things much more ominous. I also counted my blessings that it was January 1 in the Chicago 'burbs and I was sleeping in front of a slightly open window. This should be the the heart of winter claustrophobic-housatosis-despair.