New January.

What a long, beautiful gray day that was: sun a salad plate shining behind and through the cloud cover most of the day, and then a clearing just at sunset and a few trailing strands of cloud lit pink behind the church steeple you can see no problem through our kitchen windows. Not quite cold, but man, it's coming.

Having January off is an almost unexplainable luxury. May I well remember this the next time I storm out of a faculty meeting full of piss and vinegar and misplaced self-righteousness.

I'm ready for a snow, or a sleet. I'm ready, too, to buy seeds, to scout a backyard garden, to get some flowers in the ground. But if we're to have January, which it seems we are, then I'm ready for some wintry mix.

Animals figuring out the new house, the new stairs. Dog good to hang out in the new shed while I make new edits. I've got a new winter hat. That's damn near all I have to say about things that are new.