It’s hard to believe we’re already over a quarter of the way into the twenty-first century. We’re not even in a transitional period anymore.

I spent the first part of yesterday holding down the fort while a plumber fixed a very small leak coming from under the toilet. It turned out that when the previous owners re-tiled the bathroom, they didn’t raise the toilet flange. My guess is they used a lot of sealant and hoped it would hold, but I’ve been noticing mold growing in the grout lines of the floor — just a little bit a leakage; so small that I wasn’t even sure it was wet there.

After the plumber left, I went into Boston for First Night. It was such a shadow of what it used to be. I saw an organ concert at the Christian Science Church, then went up to Government Center to see the ice sculptures (such as they were), then watched the parade, and headed down to the Common for the fireworks. That, at least, was great. From there, I headed Old South Church for the Pipes and Pops concert. I was surprised when their opening number was the theme from Star Trek: The Next Generation. After that, I headed home to enjoy one last night with my Christmas tree.

We got about 3 inches of fluff overnight. I headed out to breakfast, then cleared off the walks and back deck. I discovered I really need to learn how to engage the Jeep’s four wheel drive, as the rear-wheel drive doesn’t do well in the snow. Now, I’m making this post and about to take the site out of Christmas mode, and then it’s time to take down the tree, which I’m finding myself reluctant to do, partly because it’s a lot of work, and partly because it’s been a nice tree. But it’s time.

I really don’t have any great plans for this year, just a couple of things I’ve been thinking about. I’d like to exercise more, so that diving is feasible this year. I’d like to ride the motorcycle more, so that I can finally start taking longer trips. I’d like to do a winter trip on The Mountaineer, and I’ve been vaguely thinking about trips back to the UK or Bonaire, but nothing concrete yet.

Update 11:!5 PM

It took me all afternoon to strip the tree, clean up the living room and get the tree out, but it’s done. It was a great tree, but over the past week or so, it hadn’t been taking up much water, and it was pretty dry. There were needles (and tinsel) all over the place. I ended up throwing away three of the old strings of lights I brought over from the old house, plus some old decorations.

Also, I had a quick read of the relevant section of the Jeep manual, and found that the drive mode lever was just a bit stiff, and needed a little more force. I ran a quick errand this afternoon, and was able to shift it into 4WD Hi and then back to 2WD.