The fact that my beard is turning gray is my only claim to fame.  I turned forty this year and gave up rum and tequila for drinks like Earl Grey Tea and diet Dr. Pepper.  New Years holds no great excitement for me this year.  Things will turn one day to the next just like they always have.  No love gained or lost this year.

I look forward to the passing months as we all journey through winter into spring and the days become longer and hotter inevitable, just like always.  Nothing is too much new any more.  When I am forty, I like to listen to jazz music and watch the midnight hour roll across Europe.  Before it gets to Shreveport, I may have fallen asleep.  Don't wake me up.  Maybe 2011 will turn out to be a nice long and profitable dream for me.

Dreams:  They have been pleasant since the nights got longer this year.  Another reason for the return of my happiness a bird which often winters in nests far and distracted from me.   I have visited with friends from my days in high school in dreams and with leaders of the free world.  We sit and chat about the weather and the color of each others eyes and what kinds of foods we like but can't eat anymore because we are all watching our cholesterol these days.

I comment on the way things used to be so confused and they say they liked how much things used to make us laugh at nothing, at everything, before the internet had all the answers, before things were complicated by such easy access to information and to entertainment.  I ask the woman I used to love in college if things would have been different for us if we had iPhones when we used to date, and then I wake up before she answers.  I wish she had answered my question in that dream.  I would like to know if iPhones make any difference to a romantic youngster like we were.  I like being single these days; it can bring a peace at home, once I get over the acute sense of distance between people in this world.