Good-bye 2008, and good riddance

In ten hours from now, here in Arizona, we'll be ringing in the new year. I can hardly wait. Rarely has a year been so overwhelmingly brutal as this past year has been. I can think of one good thing that happened in the past year, and if you read my blog on a regular basis, you know I am referring to the election of Barack Obama. Everything else has sucked.

I turned 50 this year, a life event that should be joyous and rewarding. I should be basking in my career accomplishments, and saving for a greatly earned retirement. Instead, I am starting over, as financially strapped as I have ever been, a victim of my own arrogance, a putrid economy, and a despicable person who did much harm to me and my family.

Our nation is struggling through what can only be described as a depression, maybe not as enormous as the Great Depression of the '30's, but pretty devestating nevertheless. Thousands of people are losing their jobs every day, homes are being foreclosed at an alarming rate, businesses are failing, banks are closing. It's beyond frightening.

Then there's the ecological crisis our planet is experiencing, whether it's called global warming or not. The ice shelf is melting, the summers are hotter, the oceans are slowly evaporating, the storms/hurricanes/tornadoes/tsunamis are grandiose and murderous. Whether you believe Al Gore or not, it's hard to ignore the hard evidence.

I couldn't even get any enjoyment from sports this year, my favorite diversion. The Mets were in first place late in the season, yet collapsed for the second year in a row, and then watched in horror as the rival Phillies won the World Series. The Jets did a collapse even worse than the Mets, and I won't even waste any more words on that. The Arizona Wildcats basketball team was a soap opera, and the Diamondbacks were pathetic. No, sports provided no refuge from the misery.

There's just no getting around it, 2008 was a crappy year all around.

So here's to the New Year, 2009. May it bring joy and prosperity, may our new President begin the difficult climb out of the financial mess the out-going administration left him. May our economy begin to recover, and our nation get back on its feet. May Obama find a way to honorably bring our boys back home from Iraq, and may we, as a planet, find ways to halt the devestation we have wrought. And may my sports teams find a way to win, and not choke.

Happy New Year, everyone.