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I had a bunch of good writing days in a row so I treated myself to a performance of Amahl and the Night Visitor at Grace Church today. I teared up at the end! Here are three snippets.

Everyone has read about how having a pet lowers your blood pressure, lessens anxiety and depression. Well, it gets even better than that according to study after study cited in this article.

Some highlights:

– The long-term survival rates of heart attack victims who had a pet have been shown to be significantly longer than for those who did not.

– Having a pet may decrease heart attack mortality rates by 3 percent, which translates into 30,000 lives saved annually.

– Pet owners have lower triglyceride and cholesterol levels than non-owners.

Thank you little fur-dudes. For the record, it goes both ways, they benefit from us, too. I’m sure they’d thank us if they could.

Finney if he could talk: Thank you for helping me live longer. For this, I will not bite you today.

I made some progress writing yesterday, so I’m going to get back in there again today to see if I can really get a grip on this chapter in order to get to the fun part — tinkering. <--- I will try not to write sentences as bad as that one.

I forget where this was exactly, maybe just before I hit the 20’s. I thought some people might be surprised to know WE HAVE BEACHES.

Today is another write-write-write day. I’m having a little trouble with this chapter, which I expect to be one of the best chapters in the book. Right now it’s kicking my ass. The thing is, whatever was the hardest to do turns out to be the best thing done. Just because you had to work so hard at it, I guess.

But it’s about EVP, and there’s no way a chapter about the voices of the dead shouldn’t be riveting, moving, atmospheric, sad, regardless of what you believe. Right? Okay. I’m going back in there.

I took this picture at the heliport on the Hudson, while out on my walk today. At some point in the 90’s I developed a fear of flying and haven’t been on a plane since. I never miss it except when I see helicopters. Helicopters make me want to fly. Which brings me to my New Year’s resolutions.

1. Try not to be a pussy (stolen from a friend’s brother resolution). The fear of flying made me think of this one.

2. Do more freelance writing.

3. Take a vacation. Outside New York. And some place you’ve never been before.

That’s all I can think of.

Here’s the picture I took of a line of fireman on 8th Avenue the other day. See? Out of focus.

Today it’s once again: write and go to the gym. It’s getting so that if I don’t do one or the other or both I am filled with self-loathing! So unfair. I was going to put together a list of resolutions for 2007, but then I thought, “nah.”