January 3rd
Today Keith and I went outside for a long walk. He got a Switch Blade for Christmas, a little battery powered plane and he took it with us, to fly out on the golf course. The weather has changed and we now have sun, the thin, white light of winter that often accompanies the bitterly cold temperatures. I don't mind the cold, I'll take sunlight anyway it comes.
Our breath rose up in the air and the girls made a racket in the frozen leaves at the sides of the road. It was noon, but the shadows of the trees still stretched long and thin across the pavement and the chill in their shade made me shiver, even under my many layers.
Keith managed to get the Switch Blade stuck in the reaching limb of an oak tree once, but otherwise, it flew well, scaring the dogs and buzzing like a wasp out of someone's worst nightmare.
When we got home, it was tomato soup and salad for lunch, I have roast planned for dinner.
Tomorrow Keith goes back to work for real and this whole chaotic chapter in our lives, one of transitions and upheaval, closes and a new one opens. It opens into the cold, clear spaces of a new January.
I've always loved this time of year, the light, the relief from the hot and cloying holidays, the heated jumble of overspending, overeating, emotional train wrecking. Though we did plot a pretty direct and satisfying course though them this year. Even so, I'm glad to be out, out into the clear blue cold, the quiet steady rhythm of work, early mornings and chores.
