A New Year

I may have told you this before, but I find New Year to be an artificial construct. Had they established the Solstice as the beginning of a new year, I would have accepted that as meaningful, but there's nothing special about beginning another month and deciding it's the start of another year. However, like most days, we stayed up until after midnight and ushered in the New Year with Travis and Joanna, and the dogs! Thus, in this case, another year has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has turned cold with overnight lows even reaching down to -20°—brrrr! We have had no further snow, but I suppose it will return eventually. Other than New Year observances it has been a quiet week. Wendy performed my first haircut of the year—diminishing returns there! I have worked through the ElderFit program, and then through the SAFE program out of McGill. Now, I'm using the Get Fit Fast program. There are lots of options available through YouTube since I'm too cheap to actually pay for one!

Hey, I found the TP

Kali has provided some mischief as usual. She is a very active little rascal and gives us daily concerns about tripping over her. The markets ended the year with days of selling pressure, but we have started the new year with some green—keep 'er goin'! The MAGAs allowed the election of the speaker in the US House on Friday, but promptly issued a statement declaring that that was the end of their cooperation—sigh! Next week, we will see what the markets make of the new threats. The Leafs and Oilers are comfortably in playoff contention, while the Penguins are tied for the final wild card slot. The football playoffs continue with Texas advancing as expected over the Razorbacks in overtime. There are only four teams left, so it will be tough sledding from now on, but I really thought that Arizona State might be the toughest opponent left, so we'll see how they do against Ohio State next week. #7-Jayhawks lost their first conference game this week, so I'm expecting them to get dropped again in the rankings—Rock Chalk!

Mystery Train

Erica enjoyed a special feature this week as her girl band Mystery Train had an evening gig at Mr. Mikes. She reports that she enjoyed it a great deal, and they have feelers from other establishments for further engagements. Otherwise, they enjoyed the holidays with family around and are now sending the last of them on their way. 

Erin and Kristian are enduring a frosty Regina with temperatures dropping into the -30s. Her car battery refused to put up with that, and has now been replaced—under warranty, fortunately! 

Travis and Joanna are off to Punta Cana tomorrow, so they spent a pretty frantic week producing and delivering a lot of product for Bucket Decals and PuckShots. We pray for good and safe travel and for a restful time in the Dominican Republic. Gemma and Jonas are completing their holidays and will be heading out next week as well. 

And that's about enough for this week.