Thanks for the new thread, Stilly.

I joined this group-within-a-group comparatively late, in 2020, after my husband died and I found myself neck deep in clothing, books, papers, furniture, housewares and other assets -- even an extra car -- that I did not need and either could not or would not use. Over two years, I have shed most of the excess and reorganized the house to suit myself on my own. Only the library remains to be reduced to manageable size, and I have actually started work on it with the transfer of all remaining children's books to the youngest cohort of the family. That's the declutter part.

Health? I'm still here, and functioning remarkably well for an aging asthmatic recovering from COVID-19. I have an ugly cough and at present I sing better than I talk -- don't know why. I can still drive on high-speed autoroutes, even at night, although these days I need a break every 150 km or so. I'm a frequent flyer at the YM/YWCA swimming pool and I still walk well. The doctor doesn't see much of me; in fact, I doubt if she could pick me out of a police line-up.

As for climate change, I've probably lightened my carbon footprint about as much as I can without selling the house. Thanks to the inadequacy of Stratford's public transit, I will need a car as long as I live here, and I'm nowhere near ready to move. I travel very little these days and not at all by air; in future, I will probably take the train to destinations more than two hours away by road. But Canadians have good reasons to be heavy consumers of energy, and that won't change as long as we have cold winters and high housing costs leading to long commutes to work. Of course, I don't have to commute any more (hurrah!), so at least I don't contribute to that problem.

I find myself returning to the abstemious habits I learned from my parents, who lived through the depression and the war, and raised three children on not nearly enough money. It's oddly comforting to decide that entire classes of consumption are simply off the menu, out of the question, not for me. Avoiding advertising is a big help; what the eye doesn't see the heart doesn't yearn for.

By the way, the foot and a half of snow that fell over Christmas is now gone. I woke this morning to rain on the roof and today's forecast high is 8 degrees Celsius; yesterday it went up to 12C, and we won't see freezing temperatures again until sometime next Wednesday.

New Year's Eve is a good time to settle debts and count blessings. In that spirit, I shall clear my MasterCard bill, vacuum the upstairs (I'm so lucky to have an upstairs!), and phone my sister-in-law to thank her for hosting the family hordes. Then I shall make myself a toddy (three people gave me whisky for Christmas!) and settle down with the cats for a nice evening of reading and television.

Life is good.