This is that bittersweet time: The new year is just begun, and the holiday packaging has been put away, and the gifts and greetings of the season are in the past.
    All good reasons to look ahead with the same sense of giving.

It was Albert Camus who said “Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.”

The new year is the perfect time to express, in the present, specific hopes for friends and neighbors all around.

We frame this round of greetings between two very different flight paths:

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n A welcome mat — to WINGS, the new home in Rockford for young adult men who have been in foster care and will now receive a caring and instructive boost toward independence and constructive living.

n Extra flares — to police officers, deputies, and troopers, who started the new year doing the same tasks they did at the end of 2008: responding to vehicle accidents and slippery road conditions. Highway 35, in particular, was a mess on Friday morning.

n Gavel grips — to new mayors Brad Lorang of Cascade Locks and Arthur Babitz of Hood River as they take leadership in a year when resources are tight.

n Shiny apples — to teachers, administrators, aides, cooks, bus drivers, and all those who are involved in the crucial, and often demanding, task of educating our children.

n Brimming baskets — to FISH food bank, which will see continued high demand for food, as experienced in late 2008.

n Book marks — to the county library as it looks ahead to a new “Hood River Reads” next month. The title will be “Stubborn Twigs,” by Lauren Kessler.

More bookmarks, while we’re at it, to the bookstores of Hood River, to the First Book program, and to the readers of the SMART literacy program. All are doing their parts to make reading more fun and meaningful in Hood River County.

n Rings and chimes — as in phone calls and arriving patrons, to all new businesses, including several that are new or under new ownership in Cascade Locks.

n Clear skies — to Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum as it presents its new hangar to the community in an open house today (details on the home page).

If you miss this one, WAAAM also plans a Presidents Day event on Feb. 16 featuring World War II L-Birds.

(More gifts on Jan. 7.)