I have been harbouring a secret (or, maybe, not-so-secret) shame for the past 6 weeks. This year, I was a Christmas card deadbeat.

Many people sent cards, and Jon put them in a pile for me upstairs. I planned to look through them as I was writing up my own cards. Don’t tell me you don’t do that – double-checking to see if there’s anyone you forgot. Anyhow, before I realized what had happened it was Dec. 21, and it was the last Friday before Christmas, and there was no way the cards were making it out. It clearly was not happening.

I re-grouped. I would send out New Year’s cards. I’d get something pretty and generic and write an apologetic message and wish everyone all the best in 2008. It would be sort of funny and cute and people would forgive me because they would understand that Christmas with a toddler is busy and hectic and things slip through the cracks. However, now it’s almost the end of January and it’s too late for New Year’s cards.

I fear I must admit defeat. My stack of Christmas cards still goes unread, because I am too ashamed to face the better-organized and more considerate missives from friends and family. The guilt is simply too much to bear.

So, to anyone who feels snubbed, please accept my sincere apologies. I have been completely inconsiderate, and there is nothing to do about it now other than express my regret. Perhaps next year I will muster the basic courtesy to acknowledge all of those people who mean so much to me. I certainly plan to. But I am forced to concede that the odds are good I will find myself penning another such post. In the event that happens, feel free to snub me as well. It would be no less than I deserved.

But, let me be the first to wish you all a Happy Groundhog Day!

Inertia

“An object in motion stays in motion, and an object at rest stays at rest, unless some external force acts upon it.”

That is how I recall Newton’s 1st Law, or the Law of Inertia. It’s sort of counter-intuitive, the idea that a moving object will just keep moving forever. More intuitive is the idea that something isn’t going anywhere by itself.

I myself have been experiencing psychological inertia. Since December I have wanted to do nothing more than sit on the couch and do nothing. Nothing, I say. I don’t want to clean, I don’t want to balance my bank account, I don’t even want to be crafty. It doesn’t help that I pretty much never get to be inert. I can’t lie around with Hannah on the scene. And I am constantly cleaning messes. So, I have not been able to indulge my inner couch potato nearly enough.

So, you see, this is why I haven’t written for a while. There hasn’t been much to say. Christmas is over, it’s 2008 (and how, exactly, did that happen?), and we’re in a holding pattern waiting for spring. Hannah’s good, Jon’s good, even I’m good. I’m just sort of lazy, and that’s all there is to it.

So, here’s to Sir Isaac, inventor of calculus, and all around deep thinker. Now I’m going to go and be inert for a blessed 45 minutes before bedtime.