So far this has been a fairly boring vacation. Between the stomach virus which struck us Christmas night, followed by a bad head cold this week, we have done nothing at all except sit home and rest for the past 7 days. Normally Christmas vacation is filled with lots of socializing, but we cancelled all out plans, including New Year’s Eve when we usually have Kathy & Dave here for dinner followed by spending the night at First Night Morris. Not this year though. We were asleep by 11:30 last night. *sigh*

At the start of a new year, here are a few observations on both the past year and the upcoming one:

Teaching is still very enjoyable for me, since I have good students and good classes again, as well as a very good department. How will I ever be able to retire someday if I enjoy what I am doing so much?

After eight years of terrible federal leadership, and a total financial collapse which might not have been caused by the government but was certainly aggravated by its refusal to institute any controls over the lending marking, at least we have leadership which cares about the country and its populace. But is it too late for Obama to actually do anything that might help, or are we stuck in a down cycle which might last as long as the Great Depression of the 1930s or, god help us, the twenty-five year Long Depression of the late 1800s?

Although I am basically a hermit out of school, I stayed in touch with a lot of people this past year. I did a quick tally and counted 230 emails or messages from friends since the start of July, a period of 180 days, with another 175 IM chats and phone calls. Not bad for a hermit, haha.

Books continue to be one of the joys of my life and I read a lot of good books this past year, highlighted by two historical novels (Last Seen in Massilia, by Steven Saylor and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See) and one fantasy (The Shadow Year, by Jeffrey Ford).

I also still love music especially, but not exclusively, progressive rock, and this year I discovered three bands I had ignored in the past: King Crimson (their live Cirkus and compilation The 21st Century Guide to King Crimson) and two jazz-fusion bands, Return to Forever (Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy) and Mahavishnu Orchestra (Birds of Prey).

I actually did more fiction writing this past year than I did in a dozen years, completing 45,000 words, all of it in my fairly extensive future history (4 stories scattered through three different eras in the future).

Happy New Year everybody!