Weekly Ephemera #127

• This week we took down our Christmas decorations.  On Tuesday the tree came down and the Wife took down the rest of the inside decorations.  On Wednesday I took down the outside decorations including wreaths, laser lights, and the ornaments from the oak tree.
  
  Our Christmas cactus bloomed this week.  This was several weeks later than normal.  Even the bloom was trying to avoid the new year.
  

  

  First bloom of my 'Christmas" cactus.
  This is several weeks later than usual.

• New Year's Eve was quiet.  The Wife watched football and I watched the Times Square ball drop.  At 11:00PM after watching the east coast new Year's celebration, I went to bed and read until about 11:56Pm when I said to heck with it and turn off the lights - the Wife had given up about twenty minutes earlier.
• The most poignant part of the celebrations were the memorials for the people we lost last year.  I should have known that as I aged, more people who entertained and informed me as I grew up would start dying off at an ever increasing rate.  I should expect it but denial always ensures I will be surprised.
• The New Year started off with terror and violence.  Not an auspicious start to 2025.
• We had a slight dusting of snow on Thursday.  I shoveled it but it would have melted on its own if I'd just waited.  Not sure I can count this as our first snow of the 24-25 winter season since it was such a small amount.  We were supposed to get one to three inches today but ... there ain't no snow out there at all.
• I hiked twice this week.  I took the first two days of the week off before restarting on the first of January.  I walked 20 miles (32 km).  I have a blood test a week from tomorrow so I'm really going to try hard to walk three times this week.  It's going to be really cold early in the week so it will be a bundle up walk with many layers.
• I watched Marvel's "What If ... ?" season three this week.  It was interesting.  I wish Disney would figure out how to make the movies better again.
  
  I returned to the Alien world with "Alien: Romulus".  After rather crappy Aliens 3 and 4, This one was pretty good, returning to horror mixed with corporate malfeasance.
  
  We also watched "Cool Hand Luke".  As the Wife said, and I agree, it was better than the last fifty movies that we've watched.