The first gift bag I opened Christmas morning contained an autographed Jack Elka 2020 calendar of the new year.
The vivid color photographs celebrate island life. Essential to that life is the natural environment, depicted in Elka’s calendar with bold blue skies, a golden sunrise, a multicolored sunset and the aqua-blue Gulf of Mexico.
The unpacking and unwrapping continued Christmas morning.
From my dad, I received a “Tampa Bay” datebook with inspirational quotations and dates for regional events.
From my mom, I received a journal with blank pages of recycled notepaper.
They know me better than anyone other than my wife Connie.
They know before the last bagel with lox gets served at our New Year’s Day brunch I’ll have outlined my calendar for 2020 with key dates and I’ll make a journal entry listing at least a few goals and resolutions.
I keep a lot of the dates I enter into my calendar.
My first entry for 2020 is the New Year’s Coastal Cleanup, which will be at 9 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 2, at Coquina Beach in Bradenton Beach.
That may conflict with my work schedule, but I’ll certainly make my second entry, a Sidewalk Astronomy gathering with the Local Group of Deep Sky Observers beginning at 6 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 4, at Robinson Preserve.
Weather permitting, members of the group will be at the expansion park, sharing their high-quality telescopes so we can see the Orion Nebula, as well as details of the waxing gibbous moon, the waning gibbous Venus and also Uranus and Neptune.
The astronomy event is on the schedule for the Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources, a department that hosts an event just about every day of the month at a preserve or park — kayaking, fitness classes, photography outings, birding, hiking, volunteer plantings and cleanups, meditation and more.
Other early entries in my planner came from ManaSota-88, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting good health and environmental policies.
ManaSota-88 called on environmentalists to be prepared to respond to bills — good and bad — when the Florida Legislature’s session begins Jan. 14.
Call to action noted.
And, from the National Audubon Society, I mark on my new calendar that the Manatee County group will go birding at Perico Preserve on Perico Island at 8:30 a.m. Friday, Jan. 10, and at Robinson Preserve at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 15.
Also, Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count — conducted across North America — continues into the new year, while the count for the Fort DeSoto Circle that includes Anna Maria Island will take place Jan. 5.
I’m too late to volunteer for the count, but not too late to report the results in a Sandscript column.
As for my new year’s goals and resolutions, they tend to be more difficult to achieve than making a date.
So sometimes I recycle my resolutions.
I’ve been working on a screenplay about union leader Mother Jones for three years and the novel friends ask about is still in my head, not a word on a page.
And, every year I resolve to:
• Walk more and drive less.
• Recycle more and waste less.
• Volunteer more and lounge less.
And this year, I’m adding a new goal to experience more close encounters with wildlife.
Maybe I’ll finally get to the Keys after 14 years in Florida and see a Key deer or a Florida panther or achieve the holy grail in birding and spot an Ivory-billed woodpecker.
Oh, the opportunity in the year ahead.
This column was published in The Islander newspaper.
Archives for The Islander are online here.