On Celebrating New Year's 2008

Moments to savor as the New Year begins.....

• A leisurely beginning to the day.
• Feeding the ducks and geese at the small lake out behind our home, with stale bread that's been collecting for a week or so. Wondering why in the world these birds content themselves to swim round and round on a shrinking pool of water as the lake freezes over. What seems like a couple hundred birds flap towards me as the slices of old honey wheat bread get tossed left and right.
• Sitting in the chair by the fire to watch the Mizzou Tigers win the Cotton Bowl, and getting calls from my two oldest sons who are Mizzou students, back on campus for work and school commitments
• Sharing a bowl of ham & bean soup with my wife, along with the homemade cornbread I've baked!
• Taking a drive to Lake Manawa over the Missouri River from Omaha to Council Bluffs to see if we can spot nesting eagles around the lake
• Watching someone ski out on the lake propelled by a parachute overhead that catches the wind and sends him flying across frozen Lake Manawa
• Back home a freshly brewed cup of Nicaraugan coffee in front of the fire
• Relaxing and enjoying P.D. James novel 'The Lighthouse", an Adam Dalgliesh detective mystery. The British seem to feature very thoughtfully constructed murder mysteries; where else but in a British detective series would the protagonist be both a poet and son of a Church of England priest?
• And here toward early evening, I can smell fresh banana nut bread baking in the oven; time for more coffee....
• A perfect beginning to a new year, and not single resolution made, except maybe to enjoy more days like this!