The Final Day of 2006

Here it is: the 365th day of 2006, and I'm waxing nostalgic.

It doesn't seem that long ago when the millennium turned, and everyone was frightened that the computer-driven world might stop in its tracks. We were living in Minneapolis then (our last New Year's Eve there), and we couldn't go out because Tom, as Director of Information Technology at a Fortune 500 Corporate America company, was on-call for that potential computer melt-down that never came. As it turns out, the machines could handle the change from calendar year 1999 to 2000, after all!

Today, in 2006, the year is going out with an embarrassed whimper . . . its sodden tail between its legs. At least, that's how things feel since here - in northern Minnesota - it's raining. RAINING! No, let me amend that, it's been downright pouring at times. The snow-covered yard now has standing pools of water on it. Tom and I, celebrating the New Year with our friends last night instead of tonight, had planned to make a special day of it today - driving to a nearby town to buy the mukluks I'd asked for for Christmas. But, with the temperature hovering just above the freezing point and the journey being nearly 150 miles one-way, we were concerned about a possibly treacherous drive home tonight once the temps dropped. Couple that with an added mass of people heading out to celebrate the New Year, and it seemed like the wisest idea (although a bit disappointing) to stay home.

I laid awake in bed much of the night last night listening to the rain . . . trying to figure out what I could do to stop this change in the weather. See, I'm a do-er: if there's a problem, I'll think until I can figure out how to fix it. Ultimately (in case you were wondering), I came up with no plan on how to change Mother Nature's new weather patterns. The only option would be to move somewhere where there are still respectable winters (cold and snow), but, since we've just built the house, that doesn't seem to be an option.