looking backward

 Today is the 2nd day of the 2nd week, the 6th day of the 1st month, the 6th day of 2025, and:

• Armenian Christmas
• Apple Tree Day
• Cuddle Up Day
• Epiphany
• Handsel Day
• I am a Mentor Day
• National "Thank God it's Monday" day - this is a tough one on the first Monday of a new year, but some folks think it is a good way to start 
• National Bean Day
• National King Cake Day
• National Shortbread Day
• National Smith Day
• National Take a Poet to Lunch Day
• National Take Down the Christmas Tree Day
• National Technology Day
• National Weigh-in Day
• Three Kings Day
• World Day for War Orphans
• the moon is in it's first quarter as of 6:56 PM EST
• and Voyager 1 is ~23h 04m 20s of light travel time from Earth

Quote of the day:
"So snow comes after fire, and even dragons have their ending!"

~  JRR Tolkien

The weekend after New Years is traditionally the day we start taking down all the Christmas decorations and returning our homes to their usual state.  I am always rather wistful as this happens and starting thinking about the past, and all the shoulda, coulda, might have beens that litter my journey - not regretting my choices but reflecting on who I am and how I got here.  

And of course, it is tiring work!  This was not a restful weekend at all.  

I guess because it is around the end of the year [ or the beginning of the year depending on your POV ] and many people started blogging around this time, I have seen a spate of milestone posts .  Made me curious, so I went and looked.  Seems that on my old blog over at http://bankingontomorrow.ceoexpress.com/, starting March 3rd, 2011 [ for some reason lost in the mists of time ], I made 1,830 posts.  On this iteration at  https://bankingontomorrow.blogspot.com/, starting February 17th, 2023, because the other platform was threatening to close, and this will be my 415th post here, meaning I've babbled at the world 2,245 times in the past 13 years or so.

None of those numbers seem terribly significant, neh?

With that first post, after laying out the history of scribbles that have vanished into the void,  I asked a couple of questions, so I guess I should provide a couple of answers to go with them:

• Will I write regularly?  Well.... my writing habits have been a bit erratic on the whole, and yet I have always returned to say more, so I guess you have to define "regularly"
• Will I renew the website and actually do something with it?  I still have the domain Banking on Tomorrow registered, and it is still comatose because I haven't figured out how to do it myself or interest someone into setting it up for me [yes I am willing to pay]
• Will anyone read this?  I have no idea how many found the CeoExpress blog but Blogger is a bit better with telling me that there are folks out there who stumble across my scribbles now and then.  One of my favorite stats is to see where readers - or at least the page views - are.  For some reason my audience doesn't include anyone in Africa or South America, for example.
• Will I explain the contradictory page title and tag line?  The page title was "Banking on Tomorrow" and the tag line was "Tomorrow is promised to no one".  Yes the two sentiments do contradict each other.  No, I have never explained the contradiction and consider it apt for the absurdity that is life. .
• Will the reason for the name of the blog become obvious?  The name of the blog was actually  "Bleeding Heart Liberal" and I did explain where it initially came from as I reflected on what's in a name?

A recent story about families that have no contact hit unpleasantly close to home.  My family history is troubled:  my father left when I was in my teens and went to Alaska, losing contact for over a decade; my mother wrote me off for decades and never knew her grandchildren growing up; my aunts and uncle stopped communicating with me after Grandmom died and only one of eight cousins is in contact, but only through Facebook posts.  My son took years to speak to his father again.  My daughter has no contact with her father.  It makes our family very small indeed and I miss the feeling of extended family around us. 

The irony of today is heavy as Congress certifies the election of the man who tried to stop the process on this day in 2021.  And yes, I'm glad all the flags are at half-mast [altho we will all miss the best ex-POTUS ever], and just wish they were upside-down as well.  You see, after he tried to stay in office the last time, now that he was re-elected, I'm afraid that we will be unable to vote him out again, if we even have actual elections.   My fear is like Hungary, Russia, and other countries, we will be only allowed to rubber-stamp candidates who are pre-determined winners.  

Neither the state funeral nor the certification will be postponed due to the first snowstorm in a while hereabouts that has shut down schools and government offices today.

And so the workaday world reasserts itself after the holidays.