new Years Eve 2022

 Well, it's just about 8 hours from 2023 here as I start this, and Jo-Anne already beats me to the best I have to say...

Hello 2023 I hope you are going to be good to me 2022 kicked me in the arse

It's been 2023 for 11 hours in some places (including for 6 hours for Jo-Anne).  It has been my habit in the past to look at my top looked at posts on the blog at this point, but a funny thing about that- all of my most looked at posts, excepting a lone spike in early March, came by January 31.  From there on, with that one exception, nothing broke 30 views.  Whether that means I've gone completely boring, Blogger found a way to chop out all the spam pageviews, or what, it takes the 'fun' (probably a good thing) out of statistics posts.  So we'll do it Jo-Anne's way.

No party this year.  The kids broke up for good, KC's looking forward to a date of some kind, and frankly, Laurie and I have been hacking up little lungs for about a week now.  No beer in the house, unless you count KC's mispurchase of a peppermint stout (which I don't).  Just some leftover wine our neighbors gave us for Christmas.

Once again this year, we had more than celebrity deaths affect us- Laurie lost her brother Paul.  Which pales in comparison, numerically speaking,  compared to my surviving brother in law, who lost a brother, a sister, and a brother in law in the space of about a month and a half to start this year.  I'm waiting at this point to see who's going to complete the hat trick of dying celebrities this weekend after Pope Emeritus Francis and Barbara Walters.

Paul, like the song, is the tall one in back.

 

On the other hand, we still celebrate life.  Laurie will become a Great Aunt for the 6th time shortly, this time by her youngest niece. While other illnesses kept us from Isaiah's, we had a great time at Grayson's birthday.  And Misty had her fourth birthday and third gotcha day.

Misty.  While there was an 'internet scare' a couple months back, she is alive and well, if a little less in the stamina department and a little more in the 'gray' and 'fat' departments, and is putting on  enough of a winter coat I've been calling her "Fluffy Butt".  She made her first trip(s) to the End of the Earth ( a place, not in heaven).  Not to mention her first walk to Shoaff Park, a repeat of the "Long Trail" walk (which came out much better than the last, lol), and a Happy Boofus Day to Chain'O'Lakes.

 

"On my way to Doggie State Park!"

 

Someone say gray?  I turned 60 this year- officially the first year I said, "HOW old?", and leaving me celebrating 60 years with the likes of Thor, The Hulk, Spider Man, and Doctor Doom.

The Christmas lights have hung dead since Christmas Eve, and I&M's don't-use-unneccesary-power edict during the lovely week of below-zero temps (Oh, yeah, Jo-Anne's way- the lovely week of -20 and under temps).  Yet, they hang, and the village collects dust (which, in this house, is shaped a lot like dog hair).  All in all, a raggedy end to a raggedy year.

But... let me add just the one more thing for the 8-34 viewers this post will get:

Dear Lord, I ask for your blessings on this new year. I ask that You push aside the darkness with your light. I ask that You teach us that love isn't tolerance of sin, but sincere desire that no man waste their soul in hell. I ask that you teach us that You don't have a political party, and that there is no flag on the Cross. I ask that You point out and underline the precious moments all around us. I pray that You show each of us that Truth in Your Word that we need, that we might banish pride, and the million sins that come from it, from our lives. And I pray that everyone will take the time to set aside hubris and seek Your Son, whom we ALL need. Amen.