Welcome to a new year

I know that New Years is traditionally a time of renewing. It is a time of resolving. It is a time of reflection. Allow me to reflect.

This has been a good year overall. There have been some dark days as there are in most years, but in the end it has been a good year.

We bought a house. We moved away from Lexington. Our home sits three blocks from the main intersection of the town, and yet, after 8pm, it is very quiet. I love a small town. We live simplistically. Now, I am not talking about hunting our own food supply, unless you count tracking it down at Kroger and wrangling it to the cashier. We have real heat, real floors, and more than one pizza joint. We have every fastfood place available. We have a few sit down restaurants. We have a couple chinese places too. The wonderful difference is in the ratio of land area to people. In Lexington, the density ratio is 353.5 persons to every square kilometer. In Mt Sterling, that density is 44 person to every square kilometer. That is more room to breath, and more importantly, more room to drive.

We also gained a new granddaughter this year. As my regular blog readers are aware, my daughter had Abigail on December 5th. That is a wonderful thing.

I am now back in college. I am taking classes to get my Associates Degree in Technical Education. This is good for a variety of reason. Several of those are: Higher pay with more education, self improvement is always good, and the Commonwealth of Kentucky is footing the bill.

There are things I could change about the year coming to an end. Most of them are actions and reactions to situations. I could have handled them differently. They are mostly minor things. There was one big thing. Still, changing our past changes us. One writer said, "those who do not learn from their mistakes are destined to repeat them." That tells me a couple things. One, I will make mistakes. Two, they are learning opportunities. This year, I have had a few learning opportunities.

I started my 50th year on Earth this year. I turned 49. The next day began my 50th year. I am pretty sure that is a good thing (especially if you consider the alternative.)

Tammy and I are still head over heels in love. I think that means our love is upside down. I am not sure how that is a good thing, but everyone agrees that being head over heels in love is grand. Who am I to argue with the popular consensus? (You don't have to answer that.)

There are things I would have liked to have done. There are places I would have liked to have visited. I would have loved to spend more time with my daughters, and my family. However, we all have our own busy lives to live. We are still a family. We haven't broken down the familial relationship, so, while we may have wanted to see more of each other, we did see enough of each other. I have grown closer to my newest family additions, because they are here. (Some of them have come back and some of them won't leave.) Still, there has never been a day that it affected the love I have for my natural daughters. My wonderful daughters, as you read this, know that I have never loved you more than I love you today, and I have never loved you less than the day you were born. My acquired family, you are as important to me as any of these.

Between work, home, and family, it has been a busy 2006. It has been a good 2006. I can't wait to see what 2007 has to offer. That is just as well, because 2007 will not wait for me to be ready. As my wife likes to say, "bring it."