1. More melting snow today. The temperature peaks at 46 degrees during a mostly sunny day, and even the overnight low is above freezing at 34 degrees. Sunrise is 7:14 a.m., sunset is 4:37 p.m.

2. New London Landmarks holds a workshop tonight on Hodges Square neighborhood revitalization and landscaping tonight at 7 p.m. at the Polish American Veterans Club. All residents are welcome to share their ideas.

3. Live in the Post Hill area? The Post Hill Neighborhood Association posted in our events calendar to let us know that their monthly meeting is tonight. This starts at 6 p.m. at the Public Library of New London.

4. Got a photo or video from around town to share? Put it up in the Pics Clips gallery.

5. Ernest Shackleton led a team to within 97 miles of the South Pole on this day in 1909, the farthest anyone had gotten toward this point at that time. The first mission to successfully reach the pole occurred in 1911.

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MILLBURY, Mass. — Millbury Boy Scout Tim Born is Troop 110ʼs newest Eagle Scout.

Born recently passed his Eagle Scout Board of Review and was honored along with 84 other new Eagle Scouts during the Jan. 4 Eagle Scout recognition dinner, attended by more than 400 other Eagle Scouts from the area.

A junior at Millbury High School, Born has been involved in Scouting for nearly 10 years since he began in 2003. He is a member of St. Brigidʼs Youth Council, a member of The Friends of the Asa Waters Mansion and involved in several school clubs and activities. He also enjoys working part-time at Rayʼs True Value Hardware.

The rank of Eagle Scout requires the Scout to complete a community service project; Born’s project was an easy choice for him. Since his first volunteer event at the Asa Waters Mansion at the age of 9, he knew this was a special historical building with a dedicated group of volunteers. Born offered to do his project at the mansion and worked with the task force and landscaping committee on ideas. They agreed on creating a welcoming entrance garden on the School Street side of the property and repairing the stone wall.

Preparation for the project began in March 2012. Several months of planning included meetings, communications, approvals, permits, and organizing help and resources. Born solicited donations of labor, materials and financial support from Rayʼs True Value, Ramshorn Landscaping, Rogerʼs Farm Supply, Farmerʼs Daughter and Echo Brook Nurseries, along with family, friends and his Scout troop.

He then organized about 15 volunteers to begin the physical work in late June. Phase 1 was to remove more than 400 square feet of sod, roots and overgrown bushes, as well as repair the historic stone wall along the side of the mansion that faces the Millbury Post Office. Work continued with soil amendments, removing rocks and roots and planting roses, hydrangeas, and an Eastern Redbud tree.

Finally, existing bulbs, perennials and azalea bushes were transplanted and 2 yards of mulch were spread. Careful watering, weeding and fertilizing continued into the fall. After more than 150 service hours, the “team” is looking forward to seeing the new blooms in the spring.

Born is the son of Pauline Tranter of Millbury and Jeff Born of Northbridge.

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When I was growing up, most deaths in my village were home-based passing of the elderly and messages were word-of-mouth and carried by foot. It’s there I learned the expression to “kick de bucket.”

Then, one day as I was walking into the yard with my precocious eyes on somebody’s business, I tripped over a bucket left out in the middle. 

My sisters, who had done the laundry earlier that day, had hung clothes on the line which ran across the front yard, blocking one’s view of the path ahead and accounting further for my collision with the washing implement.

It was a most terrifying experience for a child and that night I did everything to stay awake, so afraid was I that, having kicked the bucket, I could “wake up dead” the next morning.

I still find that episode amusing, but cannot remember ever sharing it. 

Still, even with that experience under my belt, I did not get the intent of the movie Bucket List until I bought the movie on DVD and viewed it. There are some who will be mortified by the idea of mapping out a course of activities before death. 

Those are the ones who may never make a will, plan their funeral service, nor purchase their plot and paraphernalia for the obvious end. 

Then along came the idea of the mental bucket list, which was not wasted on me, but quickly applied to my planning a superior 2013. 

What follows, mind you, are wishes and not resolutions, interest not promise, and do not represent any commitment to anyone, not even me.

Giving a thrilling “225 things to do” bucket list, www.lifed.com says: “The essence of any good bucket list consists of overcoming fears, achieving goals, realising dreams and even simple pleasures…what matters is that you experience all the good and phenomenal things Earth offers.”

So, here are the top 12 items that should do my mental health some good this year.

1. Fall in love—I’m uncertain how I’ll achieve this because the connotation of falling is accidental. This could well be an adventure, which infuses the mind, and perk up my endorphins, both much-needed rudiments for my good mental health.
2. Stay in love…
3. Do a complete physical examination and take the uncertainty off my mind. It’s my belief that if you know your health you can maintain and improve it.
4. Achieve my ideal weight. Since I do not like exercise beyond my treadmill, I’ll combine this with my desire to run a marathon and begin an active search for a coach.
5. Run for office—I figure that while I am on the sprint, I could consider this course of preparing or running for some standing or other.
6. Factor in more time for family and friends. This is a real challenge because I enjoy being alone and I’m no longer relaxed in large groups, especially if there’s clamouring.
7. Travel to another continent. So far, of the seven I’ve only done North America and Europe but there’s so much to explore and I am thinking South America—Machu Picchu, Peru, to be exact.
8. Go camping in the woods. Hiking and camping, to be done with professionals, of course, or maybe I’ll just lump it with 7 above.
9. Achieve financial abundance with my passion. I have this dream of delivering plants all over TT in my G-mobile (green mobile) and ultimately offering specialised G-spot landscaping consultancy using feng shui rules as part of the personal landscape design, much later.
10. Learn a new language. Or improve on my Hindi.
11. Publish a book. That’s from among the few I’ve almost completed—and then stage a one-man production to promote it.
12. Begin the iMPAC programme—iMPAC stands for introducing the Moruga Performing Arts Company—starting with the choral group of 50 voices in 2013. 

Doing the primary-school choir is so rewarding I feel impelled to the bigger challenge.

These are presented in no particular order save for the method my heart used in offering them up at the time of writing.

Further inspiration for this planning was inspired by Guardian columnist Gabrielle Hosein, who wrote: “Each of us has to practise ‘fasting of the heart,’ meaning learning to live with less and be happy.”  

I moved to Moruga and have been employing fasting of the heart for over two years. 

But this is a peculiar place, and to exhibit a degree of independence of thought in your way of life, coupled with a modicum of refinement, is to be set aside as a special product/project for bad-mouthing. 

So for good measure, I’ll offer number 13 for mental-health balance as: avoid and ignore small talk. I will not be ill-alert and be caught unawares hearing and even entertaining the unsavoury. 

I chose this life of less. So, no more!