Ending 2017/Beginning 2018

I end 2017 a little better off than the beginning of it. I’m at least thankful for that. I guess I can also say that I’m happy that it has warmed up today. Even though it’s still only –34 in the wind outside, it’s 16 degrees warmer than it was yesterday morning (-50), which makes this jump in temperature seem almost tropical.

My favourite photo of 2017. 

I can’t say that the year 2017 has been a drastic improvement over the previous one, but through my own will and resolve, I managed to do better with it than what it had offered me. I had an interesting question come to me from a friend on year's end day who was asking me about how she should approach the thing she was resolving to do. My response was something that I myself was going to remind myself to keep in mind for my efforts at betterment for 2018. It generally amounts to one single word. It is the summary of something that the very rich don’t seem to even have. That thing is “enough”; I’ll make that my word of the year**. I am going to be more proactive in willfully reminding myself that I have enough. I will wear things out until they need to be genuinely replaced, I will make the best with what I already have, and to stop over-consuming and accumulating dross. Enough also applies to what I genuinely want to set limits on in terms of things that invade my life that don’t serve me for the better. I have to learn clear stuff like that away better. I am just generally looking for more happiness, and that might include trying to find some aspect of an advantage to use even in the worst of a bad situation.

Last Purchase of 2017:

Olives, or at least that was the final thing that was tallied on my grocery store receipt today

Last Activities of 2017:

• Driving back home from visiting with the rest of my family
• Grocery shopping
• Kitchen work/food prep
• Texting friends
• Stripping my bedroom, and using the extreme cold outside for cryonic sanitization: cold-cleansing, a safe and non-toxic preventative measure for getting rid of odours and unwelcome biologicals from fabrics and other articles (see last sentence of introductory paragraph).
• Watching the IIHF World Juniors, US vs. Finland (disappointed that Finland didn’t avenge us for the upsetting loss to the states on Friday)
• Reading news from the foreign language news services: DeutschWelle (Germany), Dagens Nyheter (Sweden), Le Monde (France) by fireside

First Activities of 2018:

• Writing this entry, listening to tunes 
• Reading my past entries for the year
• Burning my old 2017 calendars in the fireplace
• My tradition of sipping and savouring a single glass of some fine Scotch (see below)

Last Meal of 2017/First Meal of 2018 (a huge deli snack platter to graze on, including):

• Rullepølse* (Icelandic style brined deli meat, from a butcher shop in Wynward, SK)
• Hummus
• Various sorts of Cherry Tomatoes, Pickles, and other raw veggies, comprised mostly of stuff around home (remember, the theme is enough). I’m not eating until after sundown, as I’m still trying to digest stuff from two days ago.
• Grolsch Radler (non-alcoholic, if I’m just going to be sitting around being reflective, I prefer to do so being lucid)

Scotch of the Year for 2018: Jura – a 10 year old single malt, mellow, not so over-powering with smokiness like some scotches can be, with a notes and hints of ripe pear and maple. Splendid stuff.

Last Project of 2017/First Project of 2018: - Discovering my own genome. Why? Because genetics is cool beans, that’s why. I recently purchased the DNA testing kit from Ancestry.com while it was on special discount. I reasoned that if I’m not going to be siring or begetting any heirs of my own to see what my own genes send forth, I would like to be knowledgeable about where and from whom I descended from within the grander perspective of the entire human race.

Last Book of 2017/First Book of 2018: - The Hypnotist, by Lars Keplar

Things I'm Looking Forward to in 2018:

The Winter Olympics in South Korea

*- Perhaps it’s appetites for things like this, plus my Mom’s choice to make Swedish meatballs and rice pudding on Christmas Eve (Scandinavian Christmas tradition) that’s making me question our true heritage. 
**- That's for the material things. I don't know yet what word I'll use for the intangible, non-material things that I really don't have enough of.