And now, not only is another month come and gone, but yet another year, and for that matter a decade. It'll be 2010 here in a bit, right?

Good thing this only comes along once in a blue moon! Or just once, period, I guess...

But we're not howling at the moon tonight. For a change we can't even see it, and the weather man is pretty sure it's going to snow tonight.

No, it's been a long time since we brought in the New Year in a state other than sleep. I far prefer to start the year off with a clear head.

But, if we were going out, it'd be up at Buck's T-4, where the Mission Mountain Wood Band is playing. That was the tradition, back in the day. Except now, it's unanimous that we'd spend the night. I shudder to think that we did drive back from that a time or two...

Gotta admit, driving on ice is scaring me worse than it used to. Mostly because Kim and I had our first-ever car wreck back on the 12th, heading over early to Livingston for the Christmas Farmer's Market. Hit a patch of black ice, and just that quick...

Our Explorer was totaled (with coolers of eggs, an epic mess), but luckily we only got smacked in the face by airbags, which beats alternatives, I'm told. Could have been a lot worse...

End of Year columns usually consist of reviews, although not here in the Moccasin Telegraph. I prefer the prediction tangent, over the last several years.

2009 did very little to increase my faith in predictions, though! And 2010...?

Be serious!

So we'll take it as it comes. Roll with it, so to speak. That might actually turn out to be a fairly useful skill, especially when surprises turn up on a near-daily basis. I don't foresee that changing, at least.

Beyond that, though, about all I'm fairly sure of is that things will be interesting. Very interesting, perhaps. That's certainly a goal; to keep real life vastly more interesting than "reality" TV (an oxymoron if there ever was).

Amongst several other projects today, I've been stewing about what to include (and more importantly, leave out) in this year-end Telegraph. Political gripes are quite tempting, with abundant material. As Matt Taibbi noted, "We might look back on this summer someday and think of it as the moment when our government lost us for good. It was that bad."

But at the moment, ranting on seems rather pointless. Plus I vastly prefer to end things on a positive note. Not to mention begin new ones, or really, at any stage if possible... it's just better.

Up to a point, of course.

And really, we are thankful for the opportunities we're presented. And no, I don't view this "may you lead an interesting life" thing as a curse. It may result in curses, in cases like the one above, but overall...

I'm not complaining. That's too often counterproductive.

These are interesting times we live in, and really, what more can you ask?

Happy New Year!