The Annual Bookkeeping - Bring It On!

January 1st of any new year is one of my favorite days.  We buy write-on calendars in December with nice big squares to jot down various appointments, regularly scheduled events - Thursday Writers is every Thursday from noon to 2 p.m.  French classes are (whatever they are) - but there's room for doctors and dentists and social occasions.  The monthly dinner with Dee and Mouton.  It's really at a glance because I highlight events where we leave the house with a neon pink highlighter.

Statistically it interests me to take a look at the Dead List, carefully maintained as to person, age at time of and cause of, if known.  There are 26 names on this list; my father's death leading the parade as of July 16, 1986.   Atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries.)

The total of my known dead is 26.  Of them eight died of cancer; five of old age and 13 of other events - cousins Lee and Judy died in Peru when their tour guide's car went off of the side of a cliff 8/27/2012.

I look at the list fondly and think for a moment or so about them.  Some readers may be thinking I'm a ghoul, but I see it as a way to honor them by remembering them and the events around our intermingled lives.

Much more cheery - the Birthdays List inasmuch as they are a celebration of a life in a good way.    The birthdays have been organized by month and date of month on their own little list.  January 1st is the day I settle in at the dining room table and start entering them in the write-on calendar by month.  Example:
FEBRUARY
7th  Audrey
11th Mike
22 Dee
28th  Sean
28th  Ina
This list is posted at the top of the calendar, not on the day itself.  Another at a glance reference.

This list also gives you a head's up on when you have to have a card in hand.  When the cards are in the house, write the date where the stamp would go and stack them in order.

Hallmark used to have funny cards, btw, but no longer.  Ralph's supermarket has some dandies.  For evilly dirty cards, hit your closest car wash.

My list is 49 people with the most being May birthdays (6) and March and February tied at five.

I have a third category:

PETS
12/25/2006  Loud, our cockatiel got the cage door loose somehow, the screen door was open (it was a hot Christmas day)  and the last I saw of him was bright yellow feathers heading straight south.

1/7/2007 We got Lady Bird, a 7 year old cocatiel.  Now in 2020, she's 20 years old.  And the cage doors are twisty-tied down.

Five of our previous cats, not all at one time, lived an average 15 years 6 months.  The oldest was 19  The youngest (breast cancer) was 11 and really brought the average down.

Statistics!  Bookkeeping!  Ready for a new year!  Enjoy!  .