The Penultimate of 2013

The photo above was taken a year ago on Center Valley Road.  With tomorrow ending another year, I think I'll take stock and gather some photos from my collection to post of visual reminders of my timeline in 2013.

For now, bare bushes and deep fresh snow will have to do.

We have not yet had a time this winter where the need to pull out the snowshoes has even occurred to us.

Yak Tracks, yes!

I wore mine for the first time yesterday while taking an afternoon walk.  A new coating of snow on old polished ice made for some sneaky slick spots, so the Yak Tracks kept me from landing on my tush or my elbow or my head.  Any of the above would have hurt and, of course, with this old body bruised. 

So, I remained upright throughout the walk and feeling gung ho to get a lot of little things accomplished.  

The Christmas tree went outside, ornaments and lights back in the bag and the Dyson vacuum cleaner sucked up a healthy offering of Fraser fir needles. 

I wrote checks for January bills, finished typing in addresses from Christmas cards received this year, wrote a couple of cards and cheered as the Seahawks cinched their league championship. 

Today, the outdoor lights and big red bows and wreaths from the front deck will get organized and moved to their resting spots.  Sorry to see those wreaths go; they're so pretty. 

Today will be a "say good bye" to our wonderful neighbor Stan and, later a ZAGS game--events illustrating emotional extremes in the daily lives we all lead.

Tomorrow we'll celebrate my sister's birthday and my sister-in-law's and some others, and we'll get ready to go to bed by 9 o'clock while many others in the world stay up to celebrate. 

Funny how the priorities in our lives change as we keep movin' on along our respective timelines---sleeping earlier and waking earlier.

We still keep dreaming, though, of good times ahead.  My daughter watched the movie "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" yesterday and said she's more super-charged than ever to seek out new adventures.  Apparently, she gleaned some ideas.

Yesterday I sent her the image below of The Dark Hedges Whimsical Road in Ballymoney, Ireland. A friend sent me the photo suggesting we check it out if we're in the area in April.  

We shall, but the thought of visiting such a magical scene will keep our minds tingling with excitement in the weeks prior to our trip. 

And, so it goes on this day before the last day of one calendar year and two days before the first of another.   

Like with any day, life's dreams of how we're gonna spend it continue and thoughts of the images yet to appear in my photo library have me motivated and ready to face the other range of emotions which will fill this Dec. 30, 2013.

Happy Monday, and GO ZAGS!