We used to watch Times Square on tv at midnight on New Year's Eve to see the exact moment when the new year began. As we have aged, we have discovered that the new year begins just fine if we are asleep. Then, later, we find that new digits are harder to think of and that the last digits we used to write a check (what's a check?) come to mind too easily.
We understand that the year is both a natural and a man-made (with a nod of respect and appreciation to all the women astronomers and the women who kept the male astronomers happy and fed) phenomenon. The numerical designation "2022" helps us but is still strange. For more than half a century, years were "19xx". Even though it has been more than 20 years that we didn't start with "19", it still takes a bit of effort to recall the currently used digits for this year.
Just when we think we have managed to master the new year name and designation, the old one will come to mind and hand and intrude.
By the way, I find that it is fun to look at time.gov in a browser like Chrome, Firefox, Edge or Vivaldi. It is a government site run by the US Bureau of Standards and gives several times for different parts of the US. If you get to the nerd level, you can see how far off your computer or device is. After all, the signal takes a little time to get from there to you.
Hope the new year is peachy but not too peachy, just enough to make you happy and a little hungry.
