Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

As ordered, this morning brought a break from the wind and rain and was gorgeous. It always is for the first, as in accordance with the Tournament of Roses Committee. We like to show off blue skies and people in T-shirts on the first, when much of the sane world is huddled, inside cursing snow.

Also, it salves our consciences, justifies the obscene housing costs.

One can expect the annual arrival of another million people any time over the next few weeks.

But that's not the point.

So far this year I've eaten no animals. I have, however, relied on them heavily for my one meal (biscuits with butter and honey for breakfast, chased with coffee and, later, orange juice). I'm still attempting to come to terms with having to use (for my benefit) the once peacefully resting remains of dinosaurs. Plastic. Oil. Heating.

These dinosaurs did nothing to deserve this, and predated me. The same could be said for Native American burial grounds, and I'd be loathe to dig up their remains for my own use, so I wonder why I'm so cavaliler about using the processed life tissues of my reptilian ancestors.

Ah, but they weren't my ancestors. Of course, the same could be said for the Indians, with whom I share no blood (as far as I know). It's okay, I guess, to use already dead animals, just not to kill them. I will attempt to reconcile this with farm accidents and the fuel spent in harvesting wheat at a later time, but evidently it's okay to have people killed and maimed to get me acorns, just not other animals.

No, I'm not expecting to go meat free very long at all. That's not one of my resolutions. I think last year I resolved to eat at nationally advertised fast food places only four times during the year, and I think I went once to Subway and that was it. This year my standard will be twice.

I'll continue to shop at Vons, kind of a Safeway place, but that's because I can't afford to buy food anywhere else. I will keep my record clean and avoid Wal*Mart, of course, and maybe only set foot in one chain store a month. That's not a snob thing, it's just that I find them soulless. If there was a difference between a Gap in my neighborhood and anyone else's, it wouldn't be so stultifying to shop in any of them.

So far, I'm boycotting all the sponsored bowl games, which leaves me with a meager, slender New Year's Day. Maybe I'll just read, instead. So far this year I've completed one novel (a NaNovel, set in Canada and concerned with coincidence. The characters range from an airline pilot to a homeless guy, and feature Korean students and bombers. Not bad.) I've got a long list of books to read, both to better myself as well as to read for pleasure, and I hope to have a modestly rewarding year.

I hope better for you.