I just threw out another calendar.

 

Yes, 2015 is over.

 

It happens every year when I replace the old one with the coming year’s calendar. My wall calendar always hangs in the same place - on a chimney in the kitchen just to the left of the sink.

 

I’ve had a calendar there ever since I moved to Minnesota in 2000. It’s convenient, because I can’t walk to the living room without seeing it.

 

My 2016 calendar was a gift. It has beautiful photographs of sunrises. I think that’s pretty appropriate for a calendar, since every morning of every day of every week, the sun still rises.  

 

The calendar I’m replacing has beautiful nature and wildlife photographs. Appropriately, January is a mountainous snow scene, with antelope, reindeer or some similar herd in the distance. 

 

April shows some lion cubs - appropriate for new life that happens every spring. 

 

In October, the scene shifts to ducks on a pond. I guess that’s to remind hunters to get ready for hunting season. 

 

December, we’re back to a winter scene again. This time, there’s only footprints in the snow to indicate some sort of animal has passed through.

 

I wonder whoever thought up the idea of making wall calendars mini collections of works of art. It’s a great idea. It’s an easy way to re-decorate a room once a month.

 

But I’ve always thought of a wall calendar in a more functional capacity. Each person has their own priorities. We all need to be reminded of our appointments, and what’s coming up in the days, weeks and months ahead.

 

Scenery is nice. But what good is a calendar if all we do is admire a photograph but forget that dental appointment that took two months to make.

 

If I wanted functional, the photographs on my calendar for 2016 would be more reminders than art.

 

I don’t have all the months figured ot yet, but here are a few.

 

January could be a photograph of a guy filling a propane tank. Staying warm and keeping my pipes from freezing is more important to me than admiring the glistening snow on branches of an evergreen tree.

 

April is the start baseball season, so a picture of a ballpark would work nicely. But I never forget baseball, so on my calendar April’s photograph might show a stack of coins to designate the middle of the month when taxes are due. It could also be a stack of paper money - depending on how much someone make’s for a living.

 

June could show an extreme close-up of a mosquito with its stinger embedded in flesh. At least, that would have been appropriate this past summer. 

 

On my calendar, August would have a beautiful nature photograph - a field of wildflowers. Actually, it would show the yellow blossoms of ragweed. That would remind me to get my hay fever medicine.

 

November would have a photograph of someone scraping a windshield to indicate it’s time to prepare for that frosty weather around the corner. (We were lucky this year.)

 

I’m still debating December’s photograph. I might take a break from functionality and put in something appropriate for the Holidays, like presents under a Christmas tree. Or I might go functional again with a picture of a long line of shoppers at a department store.

 

I know my calendar wouldn’t be as pretty as the ones they sell in stores, but I’d never forget what was coming up.

 

Oh. I just remembered. My July 2016 photograph would show a nurse and doctor in scrubs standing next to a patient on a gurney.

 

It’s been five years since my last colonoscopy.

 

Happy New Year!