Gathering our strength

The first few days of the new year always seem a little strange to me, a sort of dead zone. There's that inward-looking hiatus between Christmas and New Year itself, a sort of private, family time where we retreat to the cocoon of annual rituals and long evenings - Christmas lights, cards with news from distant friends, the annual ritual of visiting certain friends on certain days; it's a time of regeneration and dormant renewal, I suppose. Then, after New Year, the days are already a smidgeon longer, and suddenly the decorations look strangely misplaced - they seem like random debris rather than festive enhancements. The roads were still really quiet today - it's Friday, and obviously lots of people are not bothering with work till Monday - but I think lots of us are now ready to move on into the new year, renewed enough for the time being. We have various minor admin hassles with the new car we bought in early December - the dealer has asked for the reg certificate to be returned to them from the DVA, rather than us -can't think why - and now a dismal beeping light has warned me that the engine management system has developed a fault. Still, I suppose it was very cheap. But sorting out all these issues is impossible until the 5th, because nobody's back at work yet, nobody's answering their phones... One more weekend to gird our loins, and then it'll be back to school and work for all of us (though J did start today), and on into the uncharted territory of 2009. I can't say 2008 was a dreadful year, after the first few days, but I hope 2009 will be better. It'd be good, mentally, to get past the anniversary of Copper dying and the last miscarriage, for one thing (ok, maybe two :))
Books read today: none (just blogs).
Progress towards moving: none.