Happy New Year - 2011 edition......

It's been a crazy year.

The economic recovery hasn't been so recover-ful.........yet.

But on the bright side, I'm healthy, wealthy and wise! (at least in my eyes - which are the only ones I can actually see through)

I am still crazy in love with my wife.

I see people that I will love forever each and every day of my life.

I am still employed and still the boss.

My children are all alive and mostly well.

I miss my parents but realize that we all grow old and I am at peace with the entire mortality issue.

I still have hope for my country.

I love the Lord my God with all my heart.

I have seen miracles so often that sometimes I have to remember that what I just saw was miraculous.

As I look around the world we live in, I realize more and more each day that we live in the most amazing place.

Consequently when I hear all the folks who belly-ache each day about how "bad their lives are", well, I just want to slap the shit out of them and tell them to go hang out in Central America, or Africa, or pretty much anywhere else and then come back and see how "bad" you've got it.

Yes, as I end 2010 and look forward to 2011 I can say that it could have been better - but then again, what did I do to make it better.

Like most folks, I get out of it pretty much exactly what I put into it.

So what do I want to do for the next year (you know, the dreaded "resolutions"!)

Well, I'd like to lose 40lbs.

I'd like to exercise more.

I'd like to be a better husband.

I'd like to be a better father figure to several folks.

I'd like my grandson to live a different life than I think he will have to live.

I'd like to be more faithful to several things.

But mostly, I'd like to win the powerball, retire, take my wife and travel the world in a bus.

So that's all the news that is news........

In closing, I'll sing one of my favorite Rolling Stones songs - written by Brian Jones in 1968 but rewritten by Mick Jagger in 1970 in honor of Brian's death after he was found "not floating" in his swimming pool:

Saw you stretched out in Room Ten O Nine
With a smile on your face and a tear right in your eye.
Oh, couldn't see to get a line on you, my sweet honey lover

Berber jewelry jangling down the street,
Making bloodshot eyes at every woman that you meet.
Could not seem to get a high on you, my sweet honey love.

May the good Lord shine a light on you,
Make every song your favorite tune.
May the good Lord shine a light on you,
Warm like the evening sun.

When you're drunk in the alley, baby, with your clothes all torn
And your late night friends leave you in the cold gray dawn.
Just seemed too many flies on you, I just can't brush them off.

Angels beating all their wings in time,
With smiles on their faces and a gleam right in their eyes.
Whoa, thought I heard one sigh for you,
Come on up, come on up, now, come on up now.

May the good Lord shine a light on you,
Make every song you sing your favorite tune.
May the good Lord shine a light on you,
Warm like the evening sun.



So there you have it......and may the Good Lord, shine a light on you!

(and try not to be found dead at the bottom of your pool this year!)




Peace!