Scraps and Ramblings –New Year Eve's morning

We are at a cabin in Michigan….early morning…crackling fire… coffee perking…life is good.  We are near a ski lodge where my 68 is likely the mean age of the hot chocolate sipping crowd. These are hardy folk up here… I spoke to a man somewhere in his mid seventies… he had gone to look for a retirement place in Florida and then settled in  here. “Those people in Florida are just waiting around to die,” he said. Well, not around here. As soon as daylight arrives they will be hitting the slopes. Those slopes are covered with manmade snow which is unusual up here. The local businesses that depend on the snowmobilers for their income …the small cafes and the cozy bars out in nowhere… they are in a world of hurt.  So far there has been just a smidge of snow.  That will likely change but for now their patience is being tested.

So tonight we toss the old and toast the new. This will be the first such event that I can recall that will not be accompanied by a falling ball on a TV screen. I can’t say I will miss seeing that. Some might attribute that to my age…but if that is the case I have been old for about 50 years. I verge on being a hoarder…Lynny will say I go beyond verging…barn testifies to it. I just hate parting with whatever has been or could be of value. So you see, I don’t cheer about letting go of  2011.  I made new friends; embraced old ones… learned a bit, grew a bit and got a new grand-daughter. …yep, 2011 had value...lots of it.

I hope 2012 holds as much.  It will be difficult. There is going to be a continuance of the negative energy of the political world. Even I will likely be touched by it while seeking  my second term as commissioner. I really enjoy the campaigning,  but last time I was unprepared for some of that negative energy that was directed toward me. Some anonymous blogger in the Reporter went so far as to make disparaging remarks about my cows… thought they were too skinny… I thought they looked pretty good for a hard winter…so did the vet…but this person thought differently and considered that was reason enough not to support me for the job. I did have an old bone yard out in the herd that I had hordered..she had value at one time. I could not see her being taken to the yards to be slaughtered... so she died on the place. So far in the past four years the other cows have stayed pretty fleshy, but I am guessing that there will be something unpleasing that will be paraded out for a finger pointing and a “looky there.”  That is politics in Morgan County…in America..thank God,  unlike some places, we point mostly just fingers.

Don 12-31-2011

addendum: New Years Day: 1-1-2012

 After I had written the above, we went down and enjoyed a good breakfast at the lodge...got there about 9:30 AM. We were joined at our table by an skier... Guy was his name... he had just come in from the slopes... 86 years young. Last night at the New Year's Eve party, he  danced the night away. Joining him  was a gal who had stayed 39 for two decades and was making dance moves any teen would envy... yep...something good in the water up here... or maybe I should take up skiing.