And ... We're Off!

It is a new year!

It is time to put the past where it belongs ... in the past!
You get to keep the consequences of the choices you've made, but you can ditch the guilt and the grudges that you have been carrying around. Forgive (including yourself), forget, move on.

The sun is up and shining brightly in the Ozarks of Southwest Missouri this morning and it is shaping up to be a beautiful day (other than that part about Chris being called in to work)! Sunrise was at 7:26 today (so was I) and the days are slowly getting longer.

I donned my jacket and stepped out in the frosty morning to snap this pic of the first sunrise of 2016.

For my sky watching friends, one of the better meteor showers of 2016 will occur in the pre-dawn sky early Monday the 4th. The moon will set before 1 am (in the Midwest US) so you should have a nice, dark sky. Look to the north.
I'm thinking of brewing a thermos of coffee and heading out of town a little ways at around 3 AM. I'd say that us retired guys can do that sort of thing, but the truth is I did that same crazy stuff when I was working.

I find the order of our universe fascinating!
Even the simple things like the changing times of sunrise and sunset, moonrise and moonset, and the lengthening and shortening of daylight amaze me. Today's sunset is at 5:07 PM in Ozark and just before sunset tomorrow the Earth will reach its closest distance to the Sun in its slightly elliptical orbit.

I plan to pay better attention to the astronomical events of 2016 and I'll let you know about them as they are coming up or as I observe them. I may even try to post more sunrise/sunset photos this year. We'll see.

It's a new year!
Write a new story.
Be a new you ... if you want to be.
Find a new hobby.
Try a new food.
Go someplace you've never been.
Do something you've never done.
Make somebody smile.
Be a blessing.

And may you all have a blessed 2016!

John <><