Musings & Thoughts for Monday, January 1, 2024, or: Goodbye to 2023, Hello to 2024

Mid-Morning, Monday, January 1, 2024, Madison, New Hampshire

Hi, there, folks. Welcome to my first post of the new year – and 1,381^st overall – in A Certain Point of View, Too.

Well, unsurprisingly, my first New Year’s Day in New Hampshire is a chilly one. As I write this at 8:14 AM EST, the temperature outside is 22°F/-6°C (with a feels-like temperature of 23°F/-5°C) under partly sunny skies. I’m wearing layers and the heater is running, but my office is cold, and I must put on my texting gloves to keep my hands warm. The forecast for the day calls for mostly sunny skies and a high of 32°F/0°. Tonight, skies will be clear, but it is going to be bitterly cold; the low is expected to be 13°F/-11°C.

My New Year’s Eve Wrap-up: Out with the Old….

Like my mother before me, I don’t usually make a big deal about “ringing in the New Year.” Ever since my dad died in 1965 – fifty years, five months, and six days before her passing – Mom disliked the December 31/January 1 festivities. Partly because as she grew older, she worried about such things as my half-sister being out on the road after drinking too much, or that some idiot in the neighborhood (or not even our neighborhood) would step outside his house or apartment building with a gun and fire “celebratory” shots into the air.  If we ever did anything festive for New Year’s at all, it was because we had friends or family members staying at our townhouse in South Florida who did celebrate the occasion; left to our own devices, Mom and I wouldn’t do much beyond watching a movie or a Ken Burns documentary on home media and maybe eat a slice of panettone at midnight – if we were still awake, that is.

In recent years, I tried to be a bit more flexible about New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day partying, but I just don’t like occasions where alcohol and overly loud music – of any genre, really, but especially disco or cumbia/salsa/hip-hop – are at the heart of the celebration. In that regard, I think I’m more like my maternal grandmother, as weird as that may sound. The only times that I sort of enjoyed New Year’s have been the rare times when I’ve ‘been with someone,” and that’s because the celebrations were more romantic and intimate.

So, unsurprisingly, I saw the old year out by watching the extra features Blu-ray from my 2021 Indiana Jones 4-Movie Collection 4K UHD box set sometime between 10:30 PM and 11:30 PM. I should have started to do that around 9 PM; I might have watched one of the four Indy films instead, but I spent most of my night at my computer, killing time on Facebook and Goodreads. And since my body clock has been off since I left Florida, I didn’t even make it to the “making of” featurette about Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Action This Day: In with the New

Since today is a holiday, I don’t have any plans for the day other than having breakfast (I have not made so much as a cup of coffee yet), taking a shower, changing into fresh clothes, and maybe relaxing with a book or finishing the behind-the-scenes documentaries about the Spielberg-directed Indiana Jones movies.

Incidentally, one of the last movies I ordered – and received – from Amazon while I still lived in Florida was Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. I bought the two-disc (4K UHD and 2K HD Blu-ray) set (which also came with a Movies Anywhere code for the digital copy) as a pre-order, and I was lucky because the delivery date was December 5, one week before my friend Patti picked me and my belongings up to bring me to New Hampshire. I watched it once in the Sunshine State – by myself cos I had no one to share the viewing experience with – and, even though it’s the longest of the five films of the series, I enjoyed it.

Sure, I would have loved it a bit more had Dial of Destiny had been made when I still managed to see movies in theaters. And it was a bit disorienting to see the credit “Directed by James Mangold” instead of “Directed by Steven Spielberg,” but I think the story was faithful to the style and tone of the first four Indiana Jones movies, even if it isn’t as fresh and engaging as Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Once I get my writer’s mojo back and I feel up to it, I’ll review Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. For now, I will just rate it 3.5 stars out of five.

So, that’s my “exciting” action plan for this first Monday/first day of 2024.  I must go brew some coffee and figure out breakfast, so, until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, stay warm, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.