2008 In Review Part Two

Wow, what a wacky year.

On the national/world scene, 2008 was a mix of good and bad (more bad unfortunately), but my year was pretty darn good. Here are the things I'll remember about 2008:

1.The war (okay,occupation) in Iraq continued. Why is it that the victims of war are never considered? I don't mean the soldiers, both sides mourn their loss. I'm not even referring to the innocent bystanders, although I feel sadness for them as well. The real victims are the children. Half of them are losing parents, the other half are going to live with the repercussions and have to figure out a way to clean up the mess of their fathers. Acceptable loss my ass.

Anyway, the fact remains that we are in a non-winnable situation that we never should have been in to begin with (anybody remember Afghanistan?). Instead of pulling our troops out, we sent in a surge. Yeah, okay, it did decrease violence in the short term, but attacks continue.

Which brings me to...

2. The election of President Elect Barack Obama. One of the primary reasons I voted for him was his promise to begin the withdraw of troops. He has promised us this along with many other things, when he promised "hope" and "change". It has been documented elsewhere on my blog that I am unsure of how much of his agenda can actually be accomplished, but the fact that he's made the commitment to try and change the direction of this country is enough for me.

3. The economy is officially in recession. Well, duh, anybody paying attention started calling that one a few years ago. The problem is that nobody really took it seriously until now, when we're nearing Depression levels. Depending on who you ask, we're either going to suffer for the next several years, or the whole situation will turn around by fall of 2009. With the housing market in the dumper, banks closing right and left, and the friggin' auto industry needing government bailouts, the situation seems bleak. However, I remain cautiously optimistic.

4. Gas prices have been higher than ever...and then came down a bit at the end of the year. I mean, when $1.48 is considered a good price for gasoline, something's messed up. Don't get me wrong, I'll take it. I'm just not sure the downward trend will continue. I don't think gas will go back up to the $3.00 mark anytime soon, but who knows? Hopefully I'm wrong.

With all the negative that went on, we all needed a good diversion, which was supplied on 8/8/08 by...

5. The Olympics. The U.S. Women's Gymnastics team, Michael Phelps, and Women's Beach Volleyball all held our interests and our athletes made us proud. Even those of us who don't normally watch much Olympic coverage found ourselves tuning in. Some years that just happens, and this was one of them.

On a personal level I will remember the following:

I spent more time in hospitals this year than the rest of my life combined. The main reason of course being...

1. The birth of my daughter, Tessa Sharron Brink. Without getting all sappy and cheese-laden, she has changed my life. For the better. She's awesome, and I look forward to raising her, and all that it brings. There will be happiness, frustration, laughter and little heartaches, but also there will be love. Always, there will be love.

2. My wife Valerie had gall-bladder surgery, also documented on the blog. I will never live down the fact that i thought she just had some stomach trouble and made her go back to bed. The lesson here being never trust me on health issues.

3. My band, Blue Tattoo, made a demo. It's really good. This is my favorite project that I've been involved in. We don't all see eye to eye on the music, but then most bands don't. That's what makes it good. It has taken quite a while longer for everything to get going than any of us had hoped, but we are on the right track.

Lots of other things happened this year. Friends got married/engaged, I saw lots of good shows (finally getting my Dad to a DBT show, and my brother to a full Motorhead show), stayed employed, and I didn't lose anyone close to me this year (well, George Carlin, but that doesn't really count).

So, 2008 is in the books and 2009 is here. Let's hope it's a good one too. I know I promised some resolutions but this is getting too long now, so I'll post those next time. Not that anybody really cares what they are or anything, but if I post them maybe I'll actually keep one this year. Novel idea.

Blog ya later.