End of the 24 month year...

"Will I be singing Auld Lang Syne before my 9pm bedtime tonight? Hardly. "Don't let the door hit you on the fanny on the way out", might be more appropriate. What can we look forward to in 2022? Stay tuned for this weekend's edition. I will try to see the glass half full, instead of empty, and lying broken on the floor."  

January 2020 to December 2021. 24 months. Two calendar years, which kind of morphed into one. How bad was it? I don't know of anyone, who would want to relive these two years. I mean, looking back, these 24 months were brutal. Besides the China virus mucking EVERYTHING up, we lost Donald Trump. Lost him to a old politician who is (sorry) - losing his marbles. We lost Rush - our mainstay. We also lost John Madden - "Mr. Football" to many of us. Lots of icons - gone.

In two years, we have gone from energy independence, to begging OPEC to pump more oil. By the way - it is a proven fact that the United States has the cleanest energy production in the world. Cleaner than the Saudis. Cleaner than the rest of OPEC. A lot cleaner than Russia. And a whole lot cleaner than China or India. So what did Biden gain by ruining our energy independence? Cleaner air? No. Less global warming? No. More inflation? Yes. Stagflation? Maybe.

Any good news? Any at all? Actually, yes. Project Warp Speed. Without Donald Trump pushing the envelope and cutting mountains of red tape, many medical experts say thousands more would have died from the China virus. Abraham Accord. Donald Trump and Jared Kushner proved you can mix oil and water. Israel, who has been at war with different Arab states since 1948, signed some peace agreements with a handful of Arab states. This was beyond good news - it was Earth shattering.

Okay - can we stick a fork in this 24 month year and call it done? Please??!!?? Not so fast. Is 2022 is going to start out looking like the 25th month of this most unusual biennial? Probably. In fact, medical experts say in mid-January, we will have the highest infection rate from the Omicron variant since the pandemic started. Some experts are hopeful that once Omicron has run its course, the endemic part of the roller coaster ride will begin. But until that happens, look for "same stuff, different day."

As far as our government goes, we are stuck until at least November of 2022. Then things might start to look up. Until then, higher gas prices, higher utility prices, more bare shelves, and container ships, stacked up like cordwood outside of the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. Elections have consequences, and we have a big one right now.

Will I be singing Auld Lang Syne before my 9pm bedtime tonight? Hardly. "Don't let the door hit you on the fanny on the way out", might be more appropriate. What can we look forward to in 2022? Stay tuned for this weekend's edition. I will try to see the glass half full, instead an empty glass, lying broken on the floor.