New Year's Resolutions 2014

 

I just re-read my New Year's resolutions for 2013. Hmmm … I made three: 1) get rid of junk food and eat healthier; 2) walk and exercise daily; 3) finish a book.

I thought if I ate healthier and exercised regularly I'd lose weight. Except I didn't really “resolve to lose weight” because that should have been the by-product of a healthier lifestyle. I think I've been eating more and drinking more this past year and really haven't exercised much at all. Subsequently I have gained, instead of lost weight. Bummer. I could come up with all sorts of excuses, but really, there are no valid ones. I'm lazy.

I did finish a book, Caribbean Stories. Now available for your perusing pleasure. We have several more e-books in the hopper and completing at least one more e-book is on this year's resolutions list.

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Okay … looks like everything from 2013 goes back on the resolutions list for 2014 (sigh!) … along with drinking more water (versus wine and beer). Lin vows to drink only one glass of one per day.

Maybe being back on the boat will make the process easier. At least, I'll have to walk to the store to get junk food instead of riding. No, no, no …. no more junk food. Okay … I'm resolved.

I'm also resolved to depart tomorrow evening for Adelaide to join David on Nine of Cups … at last. This is one resolution that's easy to keep on my part. There's just one hiccup. It's 19F/-7C and expected to get colder. There's a winter storm/blizzard in progress … a true Nor'easter … that is predicted to dump 8-14” of snow on us … maybe more. May the gods show pity on me and get me home. Stay tuned.

On the Tenth Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me …

Ten hearts a'leapin

Nine frantic fixes

Eight bulky boat parts

Seven quests for hardware

Six shiny shackles

Five I miss you's

Four galley updates

Three e-mailed errands

Two bigger duffels and a

Christmas morning greeting on Skype

Calendars - 2014? Already?

 

I finally got around to buying a new calendar for 2014. I always try to choose a theme that we can live with for the whole year … birds, lighthouses, beautiful beaches … as long as the calendar doesn't cost more than a dollar or two. This year I also decided to print my own because 1) I'm cheap and didn't want to buy a second calendar and 2) I like big, blank blocks I can write in for planning projects, remembering b-days and doing countdowns till our next sail date. I like to keep it all in my notebook. Yes, I realize I can do all this on my laptop or iPad, but I like to jot down notes the old-fashioned way sometimes.

Lin, on the other hand, uses her iPhone for all of her appointments, planning, etc. Still, she always requests a Wicca calendar for her December birthday and I always buy it for her. She can keep track of Esbats and Sabbats that way and maybe learn a new spell or two. She refers to its “color of the day” reminder when getting dressed each morning, just to make sure she's in sync with the rest of her witchy world.

Since we're on the subject of calendars, I might add I was always a bit confused by the Julian (named after Julius Caesar) versus the Gregorian (named after Pope Gregory VIII) calendar. Wikipedia explained that the Gregorian calendar in current use was developed in 1582 as a time adjustment to the Julian calendar amounting to a 0.002% correction in the length of the year. Evidently the motivation for the reform was so that the Christian Easter celebration stayed in sync with the spring equinox. Anyhow, people born around that time always have two birth dates, one according to the Gregorian calendar and the other according to the Julian. Two birthdays would be right up my alley.

According to my research there are about 40 different active calendars in use throughout the world. For the Jews, for instance, it is now the year 5774. Their new year starts with Rosh Hashanah in September. The Muslims use the lunar Hijiri calendar and it's 1435 for them. The Chinese will celebrate their New Year on January 31st 2014. They move from the year of the Snake to the year of the Horse. I'm an Ox and David is a Rat, so it won't be our years.

The Mayan calendar ended in 2012 (5125). The world was supposed to be the end then, but it didn't, so now it's either 5127 or 2. I haven't figured out the exact calculations and I don't know any Mayans to consult with.

Want to create and print your own 2014 calendar? It's free, easy and even country specific for holidays.  I just printed out my own Australian 2014 calendar and it's great.

Speaking of calendars … at the moment, we're using the Nine of Cups Twelve Days of Christmas countdown calendar.

On the Fifth Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

Five I miss you's

Four galley updates

Three e-mailed errands

Two bigger duffels

And a Christmas morning greeting on Skype

Nelson Mandela - A Small Tribute to a Great Man

 

I noticed that all US flags were at half mast the other day (December 7th) and then remembered it was Pearl Harbor Day. On December 8th, they were at half mast again and I wondered why, but I hoped it was in tribute to Nelson Mandela. And it was and I was pleased and proud that the US was honoring a great man with this simple, conjoined effort.

When we visited Cape Town, South Africa a few years ago, we made it a point to take the little ferry boat to Robben Island. There we boarded a bus that took us on a tour of the desolate, barren, dried out place that Nelson Mandela called home for 18 of his 27 years of incarceration. Ex-political prisoners who had been imprisoned at Robben Island served as our hosts and guides.

We saw the limestone quarry where political prisoners labored, piling rocks and moving them from one place to another. No meaningful work allowed … just useless labor.

We saw his cell … tiny, cold, hard, gray concrete overlooking a concrete courtyard. He described it in his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom:

“ It overlooked the courtyard and had a small eye-level window. I could walk the length of my cell in three paces. When I lay down, I could feel the wall with my feet and my head grazed the concrete at the other side. The width was about six feet and the walls were at least two feet thick. Each cell had a white card posted outside of it with our name and our prison service number. Mine read, “N. Mandela 466/64,” which meant I was the 466th prisoner admitted to the island in 1964. I was forty-six years old, a political prisoner with a life sentence, and that small cramped place was to be my home for I knew not how long.”

No contact was allowed with the outside world. No visitors. It was dirty, dank and the prisoners were subjected to indescribable and constant humiliation. How does a man tolerate the intolerable? How does he tolerate it day after day after day and still be able to forgive his persecutors and strive for his ideals of peace and equity in a country that stole 27 years of his life?

There is so little greatness among us. After we mourn his passing, we must strive to honor his legacy.