HAPPY NEW YEAR FOLKS

    The years seem to go faster and faster. If I look back things have been great. I look forward to the future and 2020.

    I have one special story for New Year's Eve and I've written about it before. So look for it 1964: A New Year's Eve to Remember:

    Happy New Year. All the best in 2020.

Happy New Year

     It's 7:00 PM mountain standard time here.  It's early New Year's Eve. Some people are already in 2016 and some have much more time to go in their New Year's Eve. Some people mark New Year's Eve with great celebration and some, like me, pass it as most other evenings in my life. I've done it both ways. I've partied my face off and as I said I spend very quiet New Year's Eves.

      Some people like to look back on 2015...the year in review. I'm not big on looking back at my own 2015. I don't really think about it. I am a current events junkie so I like to listen to a review of news events for the past year. In fact,I will listen to more than one review. (Ooh somebody just let a fire cracker go!) I like reviews to be separate as politics, sports , music...

     Other people like to look ahead to 2016. What will 2016 bring them. What do they hope for in 2016. Some people are big on making resolutions for 2016. Some resolutions people share  can be very interesting. For myself, I'm not big on resolutions. I have enough trouble remembering my resolution let alone acting on it. I try to fool myself by saying I will make resolutions as the year goes by.

     I admire those people who take a balanced approach and think about the happenings in the old year and look ahead to the New Year. 

     I do look back at one major New Year's Eve event in my life. 49 years ago tonight I had the first date with my wife. It was a blind date and, of course, we went to a large New Year's Eve party!

     Whatever you do to mark the new year I hope you enjoy the evening. I hope you had a great 2015 and I wish you all the best for 2016.

1964: A New Year's Eve to Remember

    Now I'm sure that everybody can look back to some memorable New Year's Eve. Any variety of things can happen to make a memorable New Year's Eve compared to all the others.

    The New Year's Eve of 1964 is the most memorable for me. I'd been in the Arctic for a year and a half. There were many community social activities and lots of visiting to houses and individual families. In the 1960's New Years Eve was a big celebration. Fancy dinners and dances were very popular.

    Now it wasn't fun to go to an New Year's Eve party alone. I'd done that once. I wanted to go to the party and I wanted to take someone with me. I had met a girl a couple of times as she had just come in. I liked her and tried to contact her and see if she wanted to go to the New Year's Eve party with me. I phoned the nurses residence an number of times and couldn't contact her. My  friend was in the same boat and we both sort of gave up. 

   An older nurse was a good friend of ours. We visited her one day. Merle was a very with it gal. She soon found out that we had both tried to arrange dates. She said, "I'll look after it." She did look after it. In no time we were given instructions to phone these two girls and they would be waiting for our calls. The fix was in. All arrangements were made. We were going with a large group of friends.

   So 50 years ago last night was the first date I had with my wife. We always joke that we met on a blind date but that's not exactly true.

   We partied until about 2:00 AM and then walked about a mile back to the nurses residence. Many other couples were there and so visiting continued until about 4:00 AM. Some people had to work the next day! So things shut down.

   Anybody else out there with a special New Year's Eve?

What in the World is Google Plus?

    Some time ago I received a message that I had been included in somebody's circle.

    This was a complete surprise to me. What kind of circle? Big! Blue! Sewing circle! Circle of life! It was a mystifying situation.

    I received more notices that I had been included in circles. I started looking up Google plus. I couldn't find much other than they wanted me to set up and account.

    Do I need another account of some kind ? No. So I didn't set up an account.

    I kept running into the Google plus thing. So I thought I'll set up an account. Well the setting up  an account was about as confounding as the circles. I went through the procedures of setting up an account but when I was finished I couldn't find my account. Set up face book and there it is. Simple. Set up twitter. Two or three steps and I'm on twitter. Google plus is a mystery. 

    I discovered my Google plus account when I was looking at somebody else's Google plus account. I discovered that there were no circles!  All this talk about circles and it turns out to be just a list. Can you believe that? Do I have a pass word for Google plus? I can't remember. What was Google thinking of when they set up Google plus?

    Now I still can't find my account. I've added some names to my "circles." I don't know if anybody knows that they are in one or two of my circles. Nobody has told me they found out they wee in one of my circles. 
  
   Now after all this Google plus looks like something that combines face book, twitter, blogs and a whole lot of other things that I want to keep separate so that I don't get confused. Google has in their wisdom taken lots of information about me to make up my Google plus account. Imagine? I must be an idiot and not know what is good for me. I think Google just took away some of my decision making power.

   Has anybody else has this relationship with Google Plus?

   So I end up 2015 with a rant! 

   I've had a very good year at Hiawatha House. You've made my year in so many ways. I look forward to being around Hiawatha House in 2015 and having you along for the ride.

   Have a great 2015 everybody!
    

The New Year's Eve that Changed My Life

      In my family the New Year's tradition was fairly standard. There was no celebration of New Year's Eve. On New Year's day there was a traditional family day. Mom's cousin and her family would come over and a big turkey dinner was eaten at noon. All afternoon we visited, played games and nibbled. Since we were farmers the men would leave to "do the chores" around five PM. In other words they went to tend their livestock. Then about 6:00 PM we had a rather lavish cold plate. More of the same until midnight when we had more lunch and the day ended. It was a complete day of feasting.

     Once I left the family so that I wasn't able to be home for festivities, I had to try something different. So I was introduced to the New Year's Eve party with dining and dancing and drinking lots of "pop."

    Now the New Year's Eve that changed my life happened rather innocently. There was nothing earth shattering. There was no epiphany. There were no great resolutions. I needed somebody to take to the New Year's Eve party. I tried to phone a certain nurse but I guess she was on shift and I couldn't reach her. My friend was in the same boat. We were moaning about this to a public health nurse who lived in our building. She said, "I'll see what I can do for you guys". Now Merle had a wicked sense of humor. she would set these up as blind dates. We didn't know who we were going to end up with. If it was somebody we really didn't want we were ready to run out the door. We you guessed it. Merle got the girl I had been trying to phone.

    Now the rest of the story is that the nurse I took to the party became my wife! So New Year's Eve 1964 was the first date I had with my wife. That certainly changed my life forever..

Marking Milestones with Celebration.

       In just a few hours a very well celebrated milestone of the year is about to be recognized and celebrated. We emphasize New Years by celebrating the Eve and also the first day of the year. Some bloggers have already written a post on New Year's Eve or New Years Day. Most people are very aware of the new year even if they don't celebrate.

      For many it is a time to stop and take stock of their life. In the past year what are their achievements? What are their losses? What are they going to do in the New Year? Do they want to improve themselves in the New Year?  How will they change in the next year? There is much agonizing of resolutions to be made for the next year.

     There are other milestones that we like to recognize. Who would forget Thanksgiving? There are different dates for Thanksgiving and each culture has their own spin on what Thanksgiving means.

     We put tremendous importance on birthdays, anniversaries and deaths. The first two we like to celebrate.      New Years has a special significance to me as that's the first date I had with my wife. So Dec 31 of 1963 bis an important date for me. It is difficult to put our losses out of our mind when loved ones birthdays or day of death come around. These are all times when we have reason to stop and look at our present stage in life. Who hasn't made the birthday wish?

    We seem to need to recognize important dates to help us think back to what has happened in our life. We celebrate and mark our achievements. We also take stock and look to the future and how we can survive and prosper.

     So I am a few hours early for New Year's Eve, and I'm listening to classical music which is celebrating the new year. I had never thought that  there would be two hours of classical music.

      So celebrate the passing of 2012 and welcome the coming of 2013.

      Happy New Year to everybody and I wish everybody a prosperous 2013.

New Year's Eve: Triumph or Tragedy

       Since New Year's Eve is a significant date we often remember things that occurred on that date. Some of the things could be ordinary and if they happened on any other day they may be forgotten. However, the winners and losers really stick out.

      A New Year's Eve that occurred in 1964 stands out in my mind as the one that goes down in my history. For a young guy New Year's Eve was a time to party. Few of us had steady girlfriends so a date for New Year's Eve was important. I was living in Inuvik at the time and the community population was about 1500 people. There was lots of coming and going. We had a 100 bed hospital so there were lots of nurses. The single guys kept close tabs on new staff who came in. There was lots of socialization. It was good fun. 


     However, on New Year's Eve a date was important. I had met a nurse in November when she arrived to work in the hospital. I tried to phone her a number of times to ask her to the New Year's Eve party, but I was not successful. A colorful Jamaican public health nurse lived in my building. When she found out that my friend and I were in a predicament for New Year's Eve she said , "I'll find somebody for you." She knew who we had been trying to invite. So New Year's Eve came and we appeared at the nurses residence to pick up our blind dates. Sure enough the girl I had tried to contact was there all dressed up for a party! Her best friend was there for my friend. We had a great time.


    After that more dates occurred and lo and behold that young lady became my wife. So we always joke that we met on a blind date.


    So I can look back on that New Year's Eve as a win! As in most relationships there have been ups and downs. On some days we would say that was a tragic night and most days that it was the greatest night ever.
  
     How about your New Year's Eves? Have they all been eventful and memorable? Have some of them been tragic?


    So here's a Happy New Year to all my readers. Have a wonderful 1012!