& so,

at 5.30 p.m. in the afternoon, on this first day of the year, I find myself standing in the dining room brandishing a plastic fly-swat, looking for the fly that came in with me from outside, & reciting to myself Goethe’s Der Erlenkönig in the original German.

Wer reitet so spät durch Nacht und Wind?
Es ist der Vater mit seinem Kind.

Uh, oh. Looks like it’s going to be one of those years......