Anno Domini

This household has arrived at the 2,003rd year after the birth of Christ more or less in one piece.
We are – thanks be to God – a good bit lighter on the scales than last year at this time. And, alas,
a few pounds heavier on the scales than last month at this time. But it all tasted good, every bit of
it.

We welcomed the new year in homely fashion. We listened to the new year come in across the world
on short wave and on the internet broadcasts. Radio Telefis Eireann broadcast a band playing
The Stars and Stripes Forever. (Do they like us all of a sudden? The received opinion up until then
so far as I know, was that the U.S. government under the rule of the G.O.P. was the war-mongering
scourge of the planet. Maybe it was just a march and nobody cared about the title.) When our midnight
arrived, I went out and played Auld Lang Syne. Some of the neighborhood children came out to bang pots and
pans and whoop and holler. A neighbor had saved some fireworks from the 4th of July and set them
off in the street. I played a reel and the children did something that was intended to be a dance by
the light of the fireworks. And that was it. I played a Mexican hymn [O, Maria, Madre mia] and we
went inside. The temperature was in the mid-forties which is too cold for me in shirtsleeves and for
the pipes at any time and the tuning duly went seriously wonky.

We had some wine with dinner, but alcohol did not play much of a role in the day otherwise. If it
did for you, you might want to take a look at Tim Grobaty’s column in the Press Telegram. He
claims to have The Cure. Several of them, in fact.