Day 361 - back in the office

 Today is the 4th day of the 52nd week, the 27th day of the 12th month, the 361st day of 2023 [ to my amusement, I actually encountered another post online that gave the number of shopping days to next Christmas (which is 363 days incidentally) ], and:  

• Howdy Doody Day - celebrating the birthday of Buffalo Bob in 1917 
• International Day for Epidemic Preparedness
• Make Cut Out Snowflakes Day
• National Fruitcake Day
• Radio City Music Hall Day
• Visit the Zoo Day
• the 2nd day of Kwanzaa - self-determination 
• the 3rd day of the Twelve Days of Christmas  
• and Voyager 1 is 22h 34m 17s of light travel time from Earth

Quote of the day:

"Kwanzaa is a special time to remember the ancestors, the bridge builders, and the leaders." 

~  Dorothy Winbush Riley, editor of a series of textbooks on African-American history 

*sings*  on the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me....

I really like that Kwanzaa quote/idea as we come up on the year end - remembering those who are gone now, those who created connections rather than dissonance, and those who were actually leaders....

It has been a good Christmas, and I was hoping the 12 days of Christmas would also be good 

Yesterday I put my presents out under the tree - that is something my family always did after opening the gifts, leaving them there until the tree was taken down [unless we used them of course!].  The only two that are missing are the ones that I got in Nashville.  I had put them away when I got home.  Of course, others opt to put everything away right away, and it would certainly cut down on the amount of work undecorating entails!  Now that I have admired the setup, I'll probably start putting things away, altho I did get a lot of Christmas ornaments this year and will be putting them with the rest of the decorations

Despite my attempts to ignore the politics of the day, I have been posting on social media again about issues of the day.  The headlines are just so bleak these past couple of days!  War looks all but certain in the Mid-East, the birthplace of so many religions, and it appears the US will end up fractured over trying to support Israel even when they go off the rails.   The politics in the US are chaotic and mirror what we used to despairingly call  "third world countries".   I read an article today [which I then shared]  that pointed out the oligarchs have taken over our society and they equate capitalism with the US rather than democracy, and that explained an awful lot.   Even the Pope's blessings on alternate living arrangements has been dragged in the mud - how can a pontiff's  blessing be treated like an abomination when it is an affirmation of love?  It isn't like he was bestowing blessings on killers, neh?

This year, for the first time in a long time, I am not glad to see the current year end for I fear what 2024 will bring to my country and my family.