Random Thoughts and the New Year

Random thoughts as I enjoy a few minutes of quiet time as we we head into 2013:

• It's really hard for me to believe it's been thirteen years since we rolled over to year 2000 amidst all those Y2K fears about planes falling from the sky, elevators falling down shafts, and all our consumer electronics turning into bricks at the stroke of midnight.  Seems like a bad movie now, doesn't it?
• Just had a really good two-hour visit with my father (who turns 91 on April 28) and I remain amazed at his overall good health and sharpness of mind.  Even so, I wonder how many more January 1 talks we have in our future.
• I've been retired since Friday noon, and it still feels like this is just another long weekend.  I think it will finally sink in tomorrow morning when I wake up after the sun is up and I don't have to bundle up and head to my desk.  
• And things are already falling apart around here - well, I am, to be more literal about it.  My dentist warned me about a fractured tooth a few months ago, and a slab of it broke off last night all by itself.  My new insurance carrier will be thrilled to hear from me on January 2, I'm sure.
• It only took me an hour to get a new Epson wireless printer set up and running (surprising even myself at how easy it was) and I can't wait to play with it more.  I just did a test print job from my iPad and one from my phone.  So easy...and perfect.
• Picked up a beautiful 1995 edition of The Collected Stories of Evans Connell from a friend of my father's today and have covered it and placed it on my shelves.  Made me realize how much more often I read short stories than in years past.  I think it's an "acquired taste" that I taught myself to have...big change for me from just five years ago.
• Been reading a little today in one of my longtime favorite genres, alternate history.  From a book titled The Best Alternate History Stories of the Twentieth Century, I've read stories with whole different takes on what happened at Hiroshima and on the Kennedy "assassination."  
• That makes me wonder how many ARCs I will get to this year - and whether or not cutting down on them will prove to be a decision I ultimately regret.  Only time will tell.
• Finally...it's a bit scary how much I love sitting here, surrounded by books, radios, computers, and a television.  God, please don't let me turn into a hermit here in my version of a "man cave."  
• 2013, here we come, ready or not (and I do suspect that most of us are just winging it, as usual)