Friday, January 2, 2009

"I don't know nuthin 'bout no restrospect, but lookin' back..."

Thank you to heavy weight boxer Larry "the Easton Assassin" Holmes for the immortal words that make up today's title!

Here we are again, another year gone by another one started. Looking back at last year's New Year's post, I did ok. I made a point to reconnect and stay connected to a few friends that had drifted away. I didn't do as well as I hoped but I made progress.

The Saturn is still in the garage neither sold nor donated, just taking up space and grating on Mrs. SpecialEd's last nerves. At least I turned in the registration and we are not paying insurance on it.

The house is still a disaster, we've made progress in some areas and lost ground in others. It's tough just keeping the tide at bay.

The GrillDome although not used as much recently has still hung in there and not let me down. I did some pulled pork a few weeks back for a nephew in need and also smoked some salmon on Christmas Eve for a couple of lucky SpEd Siblings as surprise Christmas gifts.

And speaking of cooking Christmas gifts, something has happened and Mrs. SpecialEd and I totally blew the fudge this year. We made about five batches and only one of them really turned out right. The others hardened in the pan, on the spoon halfway from the pan to the cooling dish, anywhere but the right spot. We followed our usual recipe from the past, used a thermometer, did everything we were supposed to do but no luck this year. We had to resort to Costco and some fudgie wudgie brand fudge for our special friend who was counting on us. (you know who you are!) But it's ok, fudgie wudgie is awesome stuff!

I got my HAM license and have been on the air on the local 2 meter and 440 mhz bands. Still saving for that HF rig but I began studying the Morse code in earnest when I got a tutoring program on CD from the ARRL for Christmas then downloaded a free program from the web called G4FON to compliment my practice.

As with any year there have been ups and downs and pluses and minuses, this year taking a backseat to no other. BUT (and here is the gist of this message for the three of us that actually read this blog) in spite of the roller coaster ride ups and downs of another year and as bad as the economy is, blah blah blah... we are still plugging away and moving forward. We have a roof over our heads, food in the fridge, good health, (humans and doggies), the house is heated and praise whatever Gods may be, the x-box, cable tv and Internet still works! Matter of fact the SpecialEd Boys declared this "the best Christmas, ever!"

Happy New Year everyone!

1 comment:

Long Ridge Farm said...

Ed, you are right on! We have had similar revelations up here in the north country and agree, all in all not bad, not bad at all.
Good for you with all your challenges to see the positive! Love conquers all.