Tag Archives: New Year’s Day

local news

Good riddance, 2022!

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There’s no nice way to express my feelings about the year that is about to pass into history … so I’ll just say: Good fu**ing riddance!

The year that is ending brought about shocking and dismaying news to my bride and it came the day after Christmas. She entered a hospital emergency room and we all learned that she was infected with a tumor in her brain.

A surgeon removed most of it the next day. Now the wait begins for the pathologist to tell us the precise nature of the enemy with which we are about to do battle.

With that we “welcomed” the new year quietly, somberly, but with massive amounts of hope for a full recovery.

Our family is standing with her, along with friends all over the country.

I’ve told you already about my bride’s immense strength and her resolve to do whatever it takes to whip what the doctor took out of her. I remain supremely confident in the spirit she harbors.

As for the new year … well, that’s a moving target.

The old year will go out with a clank. We damn sure aren’t going to swill adult beverages and act stupidly. I intend to do some reflecting and praying for the best possible outcome at the end of this fight.

I am learning quite a bit about myself as we commence this next leg on our life’s journey. I’ll keep my discovery to myself for the moment, but just know that these bumps one encounters do produce plenty of learning material for the soul.

So, the journey continues into the new year. I am confident that 2023 will end much more happily than the ending that 2022 delivered to us.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Fireworks ban? Where? Not here … apparently

I awoke this morning believing I would suffer from sleep deprivation. To my pleasant surprise, it wasn’t so. Why the fear of being a zombie on this first day of the new year?

Because last night in our Princeton, Texas, neighborhood my bride and I — along with Toby the Puppy — were treated to a serenade of rockets bursting in air.

Which begs the question: I could swear I read somewhere that fireworks are forbidden inside the Princeton city limits, not to mention in our neighborhood, which is managed by a homeowners’ association. I mean, if the city ain’t gonna bust ya for blasting ’em, the HOA surely would do so. Right?

Not even close.

We turned in early last night, not wanting to watch the foolishness at Times Square in NYC. I had hoped for a good night’s sleep. Didn’t happen.

Our neighbors decided to blast away. Our puppy has quite a fear of loud noises, which means he hates the sound of fireworks. I don’t share that fear, but I do like to sleep when it’s time to turn in.

Well … that was then. The good news is that I did wake up this morning. The alternative was, shall we say, not acceptable.

To my neighbors out there who are disposed to blasting those damn fireworks, I just ask them to respect the wishes of those who live nearby who don’t care to join you in the revelry.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

A new year will dawn; may it bring hope

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The sun will rise at 7:29 a.m. Friday, although it is unlikely we’ll see it peek over the eastern horizon, given the crappy weather we’re having in North Texas.

It doesn’t matter. The darkness will give way to the light (more or less) and a new year will have arrived.

We all feel the same way about 2020. It sucked out loud. The pandemic continues to bring untold misery to millions of Americans and others around the world; it has killed more than 340,000 of us. And the president of the United States, Donald Trump, blew it off publicly. He told us early in the year that the pandemic is “under control.” It damn sure isn’t!

Our nation’s economy collapsed. Millions of Americans lost their jobs. Trump kept gloating about the stock market’s rise. Oh, the jobs lost? He spoke next to nothing about the suffering and strife occurring in homes throughout the land.

Then came that election. Americans sent a message of their own to Donald Trump. It was, if you’ll accept this generalization, simply this: Donald, we are sick of your policy-by-Twitter, your insults, your boorish behavior, your incessant lies and the utter incompetence you demonstrate daily about how to run the government; we want a return to the old normal.

Step right up, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. A weary nation awaits your ascent to the pinnacle of power.

We’ve got 19 days to go before Biden takes over. He has selected a governing team that he says resembles the nation he was elected to lead. It is full of ethnic and racial minorities, of men and women. It is full of individuals with prior government experience and an appreciation and understanding of its complexity, which to my mind is the most important component of the government that is taking shape.

And so … we commence the new year with a sense of hope. We must maintain our patience and vigilance as the pandemic battle continues. Those vaccines are being administered. The crisis won’t vanish any time soon.

The new president has made a solemn vow to ramp up that fight, to wage all-out war against the pandemic. I await the result of that fight and the day we can declare victory against this enemy.

I am not foolish enough to believe that declaration will come during this upcoming calendar year. However, I am enough of an optimist to believe that we are going to make a significant advance toward that end. May we start advancing right now.

Happy new year!

local news

Resolved: No resolutions for 2019, except for maybe one

I hereby resolve to make no New Year’s resolutions as we bid a warm and heartfelt welcome to 2019.

OK, I might make one exception, which I’ll get to in just a moment.

My history with New Year’s resolutions is about as successful as my history of making political predictions, which is to say it stinks. I don’t have the mental or emotional discipline I used to possess; therefore, resolutions are likely to topple over after I make them.

Thus, I don’t even try any longer. Most of the time, that is.

My one exception involves this blog. I won’t declare it officially, which would hold me totally accountable for resolution fidelity. However, I plan to keep pounding away on High Plains Blogger at the president of the United States, Donald John Trump.

I have to qualify it by inserting the “I plan” qualifier. I’m like the politician who says he has “no intention” of seeking another public office. When I hear a pol equivocate like that I hear him or her saying, in effect, that he or she doesn’t “intend” to do something in the moment, but cannot predict what might occur the next day, or even the next 45 minutes. You got that?

So I won’t commit fully to anything regarding this blog. Situations might change dramatically in the next year. Donald Trump might be out of the picture before the end of the next year. Or the probe into alleged collusion might turn out to be a total loser, that special counsel Robert Mueller has come up with nothing at all . . . just as Trump has said. Something tells me, though, that Mueller has come up with some mysterious “something” on the president.

The rest of ’em? Those resolutions about losing weight? Keeping a civil tongue? Showing better manners? No need to commit to any of those other resolutions. Yeah, the weight-loss goal always looms. I’ll deal with it in due course, but I just cannot commit to anything with the promise of staying totally faithful to the commitment.

I’ll wait for the new year the way I’ve done it for the past, oh, many years. I will go to bed early, then awaken on New Year’s Day. The sun will come up. I’ll have breakfast with my wife. We’ll bid “good morning” to Toby the Puppy.

Then I’ll settle in for another year of blogging. I plan to keep my powder dry.