Good Riddance and Happy New Year

                    Gordon Studer

If you ask me, 2014 sucked. And not just for me personally, although I could certainly come up with a laundry list of crap I endured, starting with but not limited to several fractured ribs and extending to the misfortunes of friends and family who encountered financial ruin, random surgeries, minor strokes, cancer treatments, dead pets and general disheartenment.

Then too, things in the public sector went from bad to worse to abysmal, ending with throngs of protesters calling for "dead cops" and eventually getting some. Throw in a stalled Congress, an Ebola epidemic, wars everywhere, a rash of beheadings, a slew of dead celebrities and a couple of plane crashes, and that about sums up 2014.

So I am planning to "celebrate" the passing of this less than stellar year at home, quietly, with my husband and perhaps a glass of champagne. There might be a Scrabble game or even a few chocolate-chip cookies involved, we have yet to finalize our plans. At any rate, I am excited to wake up tomorrow to a brand new year, and one in which I will see things more clearly since I'm scheduled for cataract surgery in its very first month.

I'm hoping 2015 shines on all my friends, and that everyone who is sick gets better, that those who are broke win the lottery, and that Patsy and Tony get back to Maine this August.