Weather in the Tries: 
   We had a few days of relatively warm weather, including a Chinook wind that came in and within 24 hours got rid of all the non-piled snow and ice. Well, there was and is still some ice on the pond but not much. Alas, this next week will be a tad cooler, with all the lows below freezing, but all the highs should be above freezing. A couple of days may even make it into the low 40s.

Happy 2023!!
Today is the first day of 2023, and I must admit I don’t think I’ll shed any tears for the year’s passing. 
   Speaking of passing, I have a ritual of sorts that I perform sometime over the Winter Holidays. I began this several years ago, without really thinking of it, it just happened. I go through the list of my friends who have died, and remember them, and think about the happy times we had. After all, as George Eliot said, “Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.” 
   How so I maintain my list? When I lose a friend, I delete his email, but not her name from my Contacts list. So far, I have 44 names on the list. I usually go through the whole list when I’m addressing my Winter Cards, which this year turned out to be a Winter Letter via email. If you didn’t get one, and would like it, please let me know. As I go to each name, I stop, think about the person, and either mail them a card/eCard or just remember the fun times we had. I often come across a name or two throughout the year, and consider it like an interruption from a long lost friend—which, in a way, it is—delightful. 
   I’ve thought of deleting the names, but that’s so, well, final. I prefer to keep them around, even if just in my thoughts. As I come to their names, I sometimes even talk to them, let them know how much I miss them, and that I look forward to meeting them again, sharing laughter and a cuppa. 
   Do you have a way of keeping your dead “alive” to you? If you do, and would like to share, please do so in the comments.

Photos of the Week:

Entertainment:
Books Read:  If I finish it, I review it:  https://lenoragood.blogspot.com 
   Am reading a marvelous book of poetry, “The Geography of Absence” by Gayle Lauradunn. Thoroughly enjoying the book. As Rachell would say, “Watch this space” for announcement the book is finished and the review is posted.

Movies & TV:
   Am into Season 3 of Babylon 5. I keep thinking I should parse the episodes out and make it last longer, but I get too involved so watch the four episodes on the disc.
   Also watched the second of my Studio Ghibli movies, Castle in the Sky (or Laputa). See Movies & TV above.
   I am trying to remember to post reviews before I post the blog. In order to make the movies searchable by title or subject, I need to movies/TV as a blog. Which gets a tad confusing, at least to me. The easiest way to get the blog is to click on the title of the blog in email and it will go straight there. Same with the movie, click the title on the email and voila!

Sammy:
   We went to bed our usual time on New Year’s Eve and snuggled down to sleep. About midnight a neighbor set off a couple of what sounded/felt like cherry bomb firecrackers between our two buildings. Sammy and I both woke with a start, and after the second one, he decided he had better head to his private bunker, under the bed. About 12.30 he got back in bed and we went back to sleep. I don’t mind fireworks if I know they’re set off, but they are a bit of not nice to be awakened by. And here I am, grumbling about a couple fireworks, when the Ukrainians are getting not cherry bomb firecrackers, but the real things. Reminds me of the final stanza of one of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s poems, 11 (untitled), “Yes / but then right in the middle of it / comes the smiling // mortician”.
   Sammy and I both wish you a peaceful and prosperous 2023 blessed by whatever God or Spirit you worship or don’t worship, we still wish you the peaceful and prosperous new year.