Tuesday 27 January : Lunar New Year

A gap. I have not been back to this blog in several months. It began to bore me, so I did not wish to inflict it upon others. And now today, I am back, but with a gap of a few weeks. Hardly critical.

A new notebook in the New Year -- Chinese New Year, which was yesterday, Year of the Ox, which is supposed to be about prosperity. I find that to be a good balance against the current economic scene. It also hearkens me back to my dream of yesterday -- J was also born in the Year of the Ox.

I cannot say that I slept well. I felt filled with a hot, alert energy, that while I could lie still, and my body relax, my mind seemed alert and awake. I realize I should have just let myself read longer, to take advantage of some of that energy. I feel like I spent most of the night repeating Psalm 23 over and over, consciously, as if in active prayer. After a long time, it felt like a drumbeat in my head, and so I switched to "The Lord is our refuge and our strength --". I like that image, of being a refuge and a source of strength. It strengthens me to comprehend it.

We have another snowstorm forecast, tonight into tomorrow, at least 7 inches is what I read last night, but that will become more precise a forecast as time goes by. All I can say is Oh joy! More snow! Bring it on. I am resigned to it. To the burden this winter has been.

What else to say--

Work was tolerable yesterday. I plodded along. By mid-afternoon, I was tired and in active rebellion against certain tasks, and so did not do them. I have to put together some prototype samples of the new candles this morning and pack them up to ship today. There are 30 of them to do and I do not expect it will take me until past noon. Provided the phone and store are quiet.

I did not have what I would consider satisfactory conversations with J yesterday as the connections were uniformly bad and my energy was low.

CW came in at about 4:10 and decided to work over near me so that he could sit and visit. Which was fine enough. He keeps insisting I come up and see his new place -- he must really be proud of it, it must be such an improvement over other places he has lived. He has so little, he doesn't even have gloves and I wish there was a place in town where I could simply buy him a pair and hand them to him.

These below zero mornings are brutal in their own way, even after you become accustomed to them.

I managed to find an orange amber candle with the wick too far off center yesterday and brought it home. It is my new favorite -- I just drink in the scent of it, I really love it. I have a small one in the bathroom and put the big one in my bedroom.

At least I don't have to go t the market today. I don't even have a full enough bag of trash to put out -- with M back at school --- so that saves me a bit of money overall.

I was thinking yesterday how great it would be if M decided to stay in Boston this summer and work. I will not abide her being here and doing nothing. That time is past. She has to start working. How wonderful it would be if she actually did that under her own steam. Thinking of her tends to trouble me and so I unburden these thoughts and worries in prayer and hope for the best. My opinion of her isn't too high at the moment.