Thursday, January 19, 2012

Those January Blahs!

To speak plainly I have had a vexing time of late. I find it remarkable how changeable is my January temperament (predominantly on the decline, but apparently now recovering), how the first weeks of the year seem to drag interminably, how generally wary I am of being able to get through another year of “this”, how starkly cold and miserable the weather is even on a sunny day (I despise the salt and sand which is everywhere), how unpromising the future appears. In short I am suffering a full-blown case of the January blahs aided by that pseudo-science of Blue Monday. Yet it must be that I have turned a corner for otherwise I would be entirely immobilized, unable even to communicate my despondency.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

First Week Back

It was about a week ago that we returned home from our winter vacation. I always consider the readjustment to home life and office duties important and more often than not, pressing. Having spent an entire lifetime taking care of business of one sort or another, it is impossible for me to ignore my routine. Like it or not, it’s my niche. Any success I may have enjoyed over the years has never been without constant effort. I have always been aware that anything I accomplish will only happen by dedicated and almost painful application. Within the unimpressive sphere of my limited experience, I know that while I can reach a level of achievement which stands the test, I am equally aware that there is for the most part nothing terribly complicated about anything I have ever done. On that subject, however, I regularly observe that if one cannot do even the simple things well, how can one proclaim to be accomplished in doing anything else? In any event, I am bound by nature to repeat the performance to maintain my personal constancy. Eventually I must get back to work.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Last Day at the Beach

We’ve succeeded in prolonging our last day at the beach by having started the day at two o’clock this morning in response to a fire alarm. Just as we bumbled our way into the hallway along with the other startled guests in the building, the piercing alarm stopped and we were seamlessly reabsorbed into our respective compartments. After such an eruption we were too disconcerted to return to our lairs. We made a pot of coffee and pretended to begin the day as normally as possible, although it wasn’t long before we again submerged ourselves under the duvet. We reawakened closer to the more respectable hour of seven o’clock not much worse for wear.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

First Business Day of the Year

While I won’t say that I agonise about my professional obligations during a vacation, the frozen truth is that I never really free myself of the office. With about a week of holidays remaining here on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, I am already counting that the business days before my return to the practice of law. I have been able to conduct some business “remotely” through the combined resources of the internet and my laptop computer, but the application has been cursory only. Nothing I’ve done thus far has been substantive but it at least affords me the satisfaction of having disposed of some of the administrative matters which annoyingly accumulate at this time of year.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Right this way.....

The high spirits of Christmas and New Year are now precipitously behind us. I am parenthetically thankful not to have to regard the time through foggy eyes nor stupidly question what happened by shaking myself to consciousness. The sudden disappearance of the enchanted indicia of Christmas and the New Year leaves one questioning both its reality and utility. I imagine children have a better time rationalizing it. The sobering effect upon adults is likely less convincing. Perhaps the world-wide fixation upon debt reduction spared some people the hang-over response to the habitual indulgences.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

New Year's Resolutions

Depending whether they are the object of considered thought or the target of intellectual snootiness, New Year’s resolutions are for some functional and for others frivolous. There is also the austere option that if one is lucky enough to have overseen enough of them, the New Year is void of any partiality one way or the other, just another day.