Good riddance to 2008! It's been a particularly awful year. I lost one of my beloved cats, Claire, after 16 1/2 years. The economy went to hell in a handbasket. The company I work for got bought out in an emergency fire sale. We lost some great people, such as Paul Newman, Tim Russert and Heath Ledger. And once again I've failed to lose any weight!
On the plus side, though, we are finally getting rid of Bush and Cheney, replacing them with Obama and one of my faves, Joe Biden. Obama has picked a pretty good team of folks to help him, and he will need all the brainpower they collectively have to try to get out of the messes Bush has created. But hey, another benefit of this year's election is that the GOP imploded!! Woohoo!! During 2008 I found a great TV show I should have been watching (Burn Notice), and a new show I love (The Mentalist). Batman took on a particularly chilling Joker in what is arguably the best movie of the year. My friends and family members are all still around for the New Year. And my three remaining cats are healthy (knock on wood).
As far as 2009 goes, I don't think the economy is going to get much better. Maybe toward the end of the year, but I'm not counting on it. I think we will see a lot of stores close, but then we have been overstored for some time and didn't know it. There will be higher unemployment. The stock market won't see 10,000 for quite some time. This is not a short-term correction. I believe someone has hit the big cosmic economic reset button. We had a fake economy driven by too easy credit and deregulation that let the financial institutions run amok. We're now coming down to earth, and it is proving to be a really rough landing.
But let's hope that by the end of 2009 we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Cross your fingers and toes that we all get through this in one piece. We're living through a time that will make the history books, and if nothing else, perhaps we will learn some lessons from it so we don't make the same mistakes again.
So buh bye, 2008, don't let the door hit you on the butt on the way out. Happy New Year, everybody! If you drink, don't drink and drive!
