First Snow, Last Day

New Year's Eve 2015

It was 70F on Christmas Eve, unseasonably warm for New England at the end of December. In fact several local temperature records for warmest December on record have been broken here in Massachusetts. Well, that's all over. The last days of the year are living up to expectation. We've just had our first snow of the season … an inch or so … and the temps have dipped below freezing. It's pretty, but we forgot how much we dislike the cold.

The roads have been slippery and there's lots of black ice. The Massachusetts DOT reminded us to drive carefully. Good Lord, if they only knew we've been driving on the left side of the road for the past couple of years on dry pavement, they'd probably suspend our licenses. We haven't mentioned it to anyone.

We have plans for New Year's Eve. We're heading north to Portsmouth, New Hampshire for their First Night celebration. That means that we'll be outside walking in 30F temps, trying to stay warm for the last few minutes of 2015. Lin had points for free Marriott rooms, so there's no driving involved and the festivities occur within a few blocks of the hotel. There's a street dance, ice sculptures, stargazing and fireworks to keep us amused.

We have reservations for a late night dinner at Martingale Wharf where we intend to thaw out, dine in elegant style and ring in the New Year.

Hoping your New Year's Eve

is warm and wonderful.

Time for a New Calendar

I haven't gotten around to buying a new calendar for 2016 yet. I just noticed that the one I usually make notes on is pretty much done for. Just a few days left of 2015 and I'm writing on the margin for stuff I need to do in January 2016. I've seen them in several stores, but I was holding out for one as an Xmas gift. Alas, Santa didn't come through, so now I've got to go out and buy one. Yes, I know I can use one on my iPad or laptop or iPhone, but it's not the same. I prefer to jot down notes the old-fashioned way sometimes. I like big, blank blocks I can write in for planning projects, remembering b-days and doing countdowns till our next sail date. Lin, on the other hand, uses her iPhone for all of her appointments, planning, etc. Still, it's traditional for me to buy her an annual Wicca calendar for her December birthday. 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.

I've always been 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.

There are at least 40 different active calendars in use throughout the world. For the Jews, for instance, it is now the year 5776. Their new year starts with Rosh Hashanah in September. The Muslims use the lunar Hijiri calendar beginning on July 1st and 2016 will be Year 1437 for them. The Chinese will celebrate their New Year on February 8th, 2016. The year of the Red Fire Monkey begins then.

I was planning to buy our new calendar soon or I could print my own. On second thought, we're heading to Las Vegas in a few days and Becky always gets several free calendars in the mail. I'm sure one of them will suit us just perfectly and the price is right. I can muddle through for a few days without knowing the date … we do that all the time on passage.

Whichever calendar you use, we wish you our traditional year's end happy holiday season and a prosperous and healthy new year.

A Phone Upgrade and Driving Lessons

My sister, Lin, gave me a belated birthday present … an iPhone. We wondered if we were not the last people on Earth to have acquired one. Everywhere we go, we see people attached to their phones. Since we travel from country to country, we usually use a small Samsung and buy a new SIM card for it in each country … that is, if we feel we need a phone. When you don't know anyone and nobody knows you, it's kind of pointless to have a phone.

The Samsung is quite a utilitarian phone. One young person asked how old it was … he'd never seen one like it. Really? It's only four years old! We can use it make phone calls and send/receive texts. It's not a flashlight nor a camera and we can't access the internet with it. Sending texts is a chore. It's the old A-B-C variety where you scroll through and find the letter you need, click on it, then proceed to the next letter. There's no auto-correct (which I think is a plus), nor suggestions for how you might like to finish a word or sentence. But … it does make phone calls.

David has pretty much claimed the new phone. After all, only one person can use it at a time. He's the gadget guy. Lin has given us a brief tutorial on its operation and David's been working his way through all its many features, uploading our Yahoo address book, entering new phone numbers, etc. I've managed to answer the phone a couple of times and I've turned on the flashlight ... accidentally.

Along with the new phone came a new phone number which, of course, we haven't managed to memorize yet. Someone asked for the new number the other day and then had to show me how to find the number on the phone. We usually tape the number on the back of the phone, but David hadn't gotten around to doing it yet. We have a new number in each country, and we've never been anywhere long enough to learn our phone number in one country before moving on to a new one.

Whenever we're away for awhile and return to the USA, we're always surprised by what's new and trendy. For instance, we just learned that McDonalds now serves breakfast all day long. (Thank goodness, no need to rush to get there before 10:30.) Also, we can now monitor our phone calls on our TV (if we had one). I can set reminders, set up schedules and do lots of other things with the new iPhone … most of which we haven't discovered yet. 2016 will certainly be a year of exploration.

Having the iPhone has eliminated all sorts of frustration and it was indeed a splendid gift. Now we've just got to learn how to drive it. And I'm sure that in a few weeks, we'll no longer be able to function without it.