So this is the new year...

Two thousand and seventeen.  What a crazy thought.  I was born last century, almost three decades ago.  So much has happened in my life, arguably more than most people experience in spans twice as long.  Between parents getting divorced, friends coming and going, other friends committing suicide, family members acting like fools, failed relationships, my own divorce, buying and selling two houses before I was twenty eight, starting an inevitably doomed business, and finally "settling down" in Marysville with the love of my life, Nancy, I can say for certain that Im done with the excitement of youth.  This has been a very rough ride so far, and Im ready to slow it down.

So here is me slowing down and enjoying what I have left.

The good and the bad tend to equal themselves out.  Much like a weather system of high and low pressure.  If you are on one side, things can seem clear and comfortable.  But when change approaches, the wind picks up as the air moves from hot to cold, high pressure to low.  Turbulence and destruction soon follow when the wind becomes too strong.  Things fly and windows break and damage is done that seems to be unrepairable.  But then its over.  The storm moves on and the pressure equalizes.  The wind slows to a gentle breeze, the rain stops, the sun comes out and warms the cold pavement.  The breath of life is given to the trees as new buds form and leaves begin to sprout from their tiny little pods.  New life.  Peace at last.  But only after the dirt and soot and mud has been washed away by the torrent.  Blown away in the storm.  Only the strongest branches remain.