Slithering Away

 The Year of the Snake has just about slithered completely away, and I can almost hear the galloping hooves of the Fire Horse, this year’s elemental version of the Year of the Horse, approaching for arrival—for Westerners like me—tomorrow. The new year according to the Chinese lunisolar calendar will begin on February 17th, requiring more of a trot or canter than a gallop.

It has been a busy year but activities have mostly proceeded at a dignified rather than a frenetic pace. We bought a house and have been dealing with renovations, starting with the exterior: demolishing the original gate and garage to facilitate construction of a small neighboring house, repositioning many large boulders, reshaping flowerbeds and a vegetable garden to allow for a driveway and carport, and reconstructing the concrete block retaining wall between the property and the parkside path and stream to the south, among other projects. Masayo has meanwhile been making good use of her newly acquired Electrician’s License, to modify and upgrade various switches and lamps.

It's about nine kilometers by car or 7.2 as the egret flies from our current place (“Kamino House” for convenient reference) to the new place (“Kofun Villa”), and for the last six months her frequent trips  have been much facilitated by the new car she bought, a Suzuki Spacia Custom with all sorts of bells and whistles including many safety features such as cameras, proximity detectors, lane holding functions, and the like. She’s much happier driving that than our older, much larger Escudo. The Spacia is a better fit for some of the very narrow roads in the new neighborhood, too. 

With no new health issues of any significance, aside from a brief bout of the flu, rendered mild by the vaccination a while back, the year has been productive but not harried, and happily without any major worries.

I expect the pace to pick up on various fronts in the coming year, which is appropriate for the Horse replacing the Snake.