January

I was all prepared for winter this year. My new, all-wheel drive Subaru with super duper snow tires. I had hired some young guys to shovel my snow. I was relaxed about January for the first time in a long time.  But winter sort of fizzled out in January. We've had only one really good snow storm with about 9 or 10 inches here.  Otherwise, just an inch or two here and there. My preparations have just not been put to the test. My real concern is not about my wasted efforts, but with a dry water year ahead. I'll have to curtail some of my usual planting in the spring and plan to conserve water.

On a bright note, I've been busy getting things done on my To Do list. That always pleases me.

I signed up for a beginning guitar class with my 15-year old grandson. Our first class was last night. I have two really lovely guitars and he will be using my Taylor while I play the Ibanez. His dad will get him an electric guitar if he sticks with it and learns well. Even though I have played for years, I am liking starting from the beginning again as I've forgotten so much and my technique is sloppy. It's only eight weeks in a community school evening class.  We are two of 20 students -- a big class!

I also  saw an announcement that some people in my town are starting up a community chorus. I have been wanting to find a chorus to sing with for some time. It is, unfortunately, on the same night as our guitar class, but the director said it will be ok if I come late. My voice is rusty and it will be such a pleasure to be reading music and singing again.

My eye exam this month revealed that the cataracts in my eyes have reached a "borderline" state where I could qualify for surgery, or I could wait another year or so. I have been wanting to do the surgery. Primarily, so I could get rid of contact lenses. My older sister and my youngest sister both had the surgery last year, which made me want to do it even more. So now I'm presented with that option. It will be costly because I want to get multi-focal lenses and those are not covered by insurance/Medicare. I have the money to do it, but it's still a big decision. Surprisingly, I'm thinking I'll just update my contact lenses one last time now and put off the surgery until it's more necessary. It's something I can decide to do at any time. Knowing that, I think I'll wait and choose a convenient time. It's good to have options.

So that's January. Yes, we have a few more days. This is such a long month. But being warmer and drier than normal, it hasn't had the downer impact on me January usually does. I'm looking forward to February with some added music in my routines.  If I'm not posting much, it will be because I'm keeping busy.