New Year? Bring the Mutha ON!!

Last year started with Lisa having to have back surgery for a herniated disk, our best friends announcing they're getting divorced and we were having our share of stress with a houseful of live-in family.  Last year saw the passing of a couple of friends.  Bruce Phillips lost his struggle against cancer and Bob Boardman was gored by a mountain goat.  Lisa's Uncle Wally and Aunt Evelyn also passed.  Then her sole remaining aunt, Aunt Nancy, was diagnosed with cancer.  And, I get a call from my aunt, Tante Carmen, telling me my cousin Sabina passed from her brain tumor that she'd been struggling with for years.  No wonder I wasn't feelin' too festive.

This year better be better.  Last year, just as we get back from Canada, our heat pump compressor seizes up.  This year, this morning in fact, our sidewalk was oozing water.  When we get home from work, our neighbor calls and mentions that it looks like we have water leak at or near the meter.  I call the emergency water utility folks.  The water dude comes and diagnoses that we definitely have a leak and it is on our, not the city's side of the connection.  Nothing changes on New Year's day.  I'm not even gonna bother askin', I'm just gonna expect whatever's next.  It's 2011 and I'm still emotionally hung over from 2010.  I'm too exhausted to give two sh!ts at this point.  People are still shootin' one another.  Hate is ever present.  Lies rule the airwaves.  Idiots believe 'em.  There're more and more idiots voting for f%#k's sake.  AND, THEY'RE BREEDING!! Tell me where is sanity?

But then, there're times when the sun hasn't quite crested the horizon.  The "Breakfast in America" sky peaks past the colorless clouds and an indescribable mandarin color highlights lower hanging clouds which makes me smile uncontrollably.  Thoughts of the state of our misguided affairs on this fair planet exist not in my mind during those tender and brilliant moments.  That's where I live the most.  Moments like that.  Moments when my wife laughs uncontrollably at my attempts at humor or she smiles with dancing eyes, that's when I feel alive again.  We rode into the dawn this frigid morning wearing our polar fleece balaclavas we just purchased.  Our bikes were well illuminated and . . . we got gear!  We were literally coverd head to toes.  It was a good ride.  Believe it or not, it helps take the pain away.