The day seems a bit nicer than it has been. We have sun and a mostly blue sky, but it is still cold at 31°. The dogs are my barometers. They are out and back inside quickly on the coldest days. They are dogs who prefer comfy and cozy. They tend to nap upstairs on my bed. They are most assuredly my dogs.

I never make New Year resolutions. They go hand in hand with giving something up for Lent. I am never successful at either so I ignore them both.

The only thing on my dance card is a concert tonight, two one hour concerts at First Night in Chatham. We are singing the dance book and a bit of Jimmy Buffett. I’ll wear glitter.

When I was a kid, the only thing I noticed about the new year was the need to change the date on my school papers. It took a couple of days.

Some of the extraordinary things I have seen are simple things that I never imagined seeing. I remember my first palm tree. I’m from New England. We don’t do tropical. That palm tree was in Winneba on the coast. I saw it just after I woke up on my first morning in Ghana. I just stood there. The palm trees were beside family compounds. I was in awe. I was in Africa. It was the same about pineapples and bananas. I had only seen them on grocery shelves, never on trees. Those fruits started my adventure into a place so wonderful that even just fruits become the stuff of legends.

I think my favorite ride of all was in the hot air balloon. We moved with the wind. We cast shadows on the lawns and streets. We scared the pigs on the pig farm. They ran in one large group in a wave away from the balloon. People in pajamas and robes ran outside to see us, to see all 5 of the balloons drifting above them. It was a glorious sight from my balloon.

I love trains. My favorite train ride was on the autobus from Quito to Guayaquil. It was a train car converted to a bus but still riding on a rail. The scenery was spectacular. I saw the snow-capped Andes, bananas growing, herds of llamas and even a switchback. The bus was filled with people. Those standing in the aisle sat and hid on the floor if we went through a town. The driver would blow his horn to warn people walking on the tracks to get off. People did. Many animals didn’t. I stopped looking out the window.

I have come to recognize that life is a series of adventures. You just have to notice. Stop and smell the pineapples.

This entry was posted on December 31, 2025 at 1:27 pm and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.