Two Disconnected New Year's Thoughts

No real relation of either of these thoughts to each other, and no real reason they should go in the same post, except that both are New Year's related, and I don't really like super short posts for some reason. 

1. New Year's Day here had terrible air quality - from left over firecracker residue and, even worse, from fires caused by fireworks that burned down houses. Even the Washington Post had an article about it! (read here). I've really tried hard not to complain about the bad smell sometimes coming from Manila Bay - or the pollution - in front of Wm, because I don't want him to be sensitive to that and hear negative comments from me about Manila. I knew New Year's morning was absolutely terrible air quality, though, when we took Bagwelle for her morning walk and we couldn't even see the buildings across the street because of smog. Then, after about a minute, Wm said, "Mama, it really stinks out here. I don't think I want to be outside today - I'm going back." And, we had all three air purifiers blasting all day. 

Luckily, the average air quality rating for Manila isn't that high above what the WHO considers acceptable, so I'm not overly concerned about asthma or other respiratory illnesses for any of us. But if we had lots of days like Jan 1, I really would be. For the most part, thoughts about poor air quality just lurk in the back of my mind.

2. I've been trying to think about if I have any New Year's resolutions. In the process of thinking, I realized I'm generally pretty happy with where we are and what I'm doing and how the boys are doing, etc etc. I could only come up with one: I want to try and learn how to do a yoga headstand this year. After three years of regular yoga study, I think I should push myself a bit more. And, now that I've written it on the blog for you all to read, I need to stick to it!