Happy New Year

Sitting here waiting for the New Year and thinking back over the Old Year. It has been one of incredible highs and extreme lows.

As a country we have elected a new president, several new senators and new members of congress and governors. Plus other officials on state and local levels.

There have been deaths of every spectrum, from the mundane to people we consider important. Way too many for me to try to remember off the top of my head and no way am I even going to consider it..I would forget someone for sure and then feel bad forever. Suffice it to say we lost some really great people this year, some expected, some not, some greater than others, maybe some I thought were great, maybe some you thought were great, but they all will be missed by someone.

We have had a terrible financial year this year, between the stock market crashes, the home mortgage crisis, banks failing, businesses closing, people out of work. Banks aren't loaning money for anything, so people can't buy anything, that makes it worse. Then our government decided they had to do something to try to help, and I think they made it worse. $700 Billion and still no one was loaning any money to anyone. Sometimes I wonder if that wasn't their plan all along.

Then the Big 3 were humiliated by congress when they had to ask for a loan. Of course that's what our government was supposed to have fixed before but as I said what they did didn't work. So, they left, came back with a plan, and actually asked for less money, Ford dropped out of the loan and they were humiliated again even worse, and as Paul Krugman called them, the Nissan Senators turned them down. Finally, Pres. Bush agreed to give them money from the TARP and they are hoping to make themselves workable again.

I guess the best part of the year for most people has to be the election of Barack Obama and Joe Biden as President and Vice President. That is one of the best for me.

On a personal note, my highs for the year...moving back to Missouri..so I am closer to my family. My low for the year...losing my dad.

So, for me.. I am ready to close out 2008 and ring in 2009. However 2009 won't really start for me and so many others until January 20th. That is the day of our NEW YEAR.