Blitzen welcoming in the New Year

 

My tradition for the end of the year is to pay any debts, donate to charities, and not stay up until midnight.  I paid all of my outstanding debts last Saturday when I paid property taxes.  Well, I do owe a cup of coffee to Friend Nancy for a bet I lost but she assured me she wouldn't let me forget it so I'm not too concerned about that one.  I made a donation to the charities I support yesterday.  At one time I made donations at different times during the year and then realized that when you donate it just signals the charity to send you even more requests for money.    Setting one time during the year to pay fixes the issue of donating multiple times during the year because I forgot I already had.   It doesn't resolve the deluge of begging letters/e-mails/texts during the rest of the year but now I'm OK tossing them unread.  When I was much younger I would party until midnight.  Finally I realized the arrival of midnight on New Year's eve was a lot like the arrival of the First Point of Aries overhead.  Useful but totally imaginary.  Only an artifice for the human need to quantify the world.  On the other hand a good night's sleep is priceless.