Last year at this time I had just removed the splint I wore after my 2nd thumb surgery. Somehow it seems all that happened more than just 1 year ago. My thumbs are working fine now and although they get a little sore when I use them a lot it is nothing like the agony I used to endure. I'm thankful every day that I got my thumbs back. It's been especially nice to be able to play with the grandkids without hurting all the time.
We did a lot of travelling this year, most of it to Jacksonville. We originally thought we would have taken a couple "vacation" trips but the year turned out to be one of visiting the kids for various reasons. I just counted - we made 15 trips to Jacksonville this year with 3 of those lasting 9, 10 and 11 days respectively. We usually stopped in High Springs to see C&C when we went to Jacksonville and we made a couple of special trips to spend the day with C&C. C&C and K&T also visited us. We went to 2 Florida Lighthouse Association meetings. One in Jacksonville and one in Sanibel Island. W went to Tallahassee where Penny took a 1-day quilting course. We did get the vacation trip to Canada in there. 2013 should see 2 or 3 trips; Nova Scotia, NW US (with a visit to brother Lou), National Parks Tour and Connecticut are all candidates. We are also overdo for a visit to New Orleans.
Yesterday was my Mom's birthday. I think about her a lot. I'm even looking like her more every day (weight loss was a minor setback) so every time I look in a mirror or see a picture of me I remember her.
I love the politicians today. They have had months to work out a compromise on taxes and spending. Not amazingly they didn't do it. They masterfully avoided tackling the real issues about entitlement programs and made the issue about taxing the rich and not increasing taxes on the "middle class". Then when they came up against the deadline they only addressed what had to be handled. Their logic being we should not address these important issues in these last minute negotiations. We should address them in a mature process. So we will set another deadline 2-months away and handle them properly. It's called kicking the can down the road. You know what will happen in two months. The best that can happen now is that the House not pass the bill in its current form. The president and press seem very happy that the Senate has done something and are vilifying the Republicans. I must admit the Democrats have shown how media savvy and adept at controlling public opinion they are.
We recently signed up to Amazon Prime and I've been watching their free videos. I'm currently watching the 2 seasons of a 14-year-old TV series, Sports Night. It provides an interesting reminder of where society was before 9/11. In one show they have a bomb scare. The act was instigated by a TV personality making fun of Jesus as being gay. No one on the staff had any idea what a bomb would look like. They weren't aware of bomb sniffing dogs. They didn't understand how someone could want to blow up people in the name of religion and further didn't understand why the religious leaders weren't condemning the act and the person who made the threat.
That couldn't fly as a script today. It is just not believable. We have come to know all too well that people will kill senselessly. Sometimes religion is involved, sometimes not. But each event provides the political opportunity to remove more of the freedom we have enjoyed. Never let a good crisis go to waste.
Once again this year Penny and I sleep through the arrival of the new year. I'm not optimistic about the new year. I'd like to be wrong and next year at this time find myself thinking how silly I was.
Finally, life is actually pretty good right now. My health is OK. I do need to get more exercise into my life but overall I'm in better shape than I have been in a number of years - and I'm not in constant pain. This past year I was able to travel, see the kids and grandkids, buy some toys to play with and enjoy lots of time with Penny. I've run off to the beach or bayou many times and taken more pictures of birds and sunsets than anyone in their right mind should.
That's all I've got.
Happy New Year!
No comments:
Post a Comment