End of the Year

No great thoughts or resolutions; just the end of the year. Walked, cleaned, baked, cooked, did laundry, kept the woodstove going, scolded dogs, fed chickens and rabbits today -- Lisa's gone to Florida for the week to visit her dad, so it's just me and the boys.

An unholy bunch of snow on the ground, with another foot coming tomorrow. We probably got 10 inches today, on top of the 20 inches already this year. It's about what we got during all of last winter. Tourists are out in force, with all the subtlety of a Bastille mob. There were out-of-state SUVs lined up five deep in front of the gas pumps at the main store this afternoon.

Which is a not-too-elegant segue into Kunstler's 2008 predictions. Even if you don't agree with him, he's a hell of a lot of fun to read. I think you might see his photo in Webster's, under "schadenfreude."

For the tiny fraction of people who actually pay attention to real events -- those, for instance, who know the difference between Narnia and Kandahar -- the final hours of 2007 leading into the fog-shrouded abyss of 2008 must induce great racking shudders of nausea. Has there ever been a society so exquisitely rigged for implosion? The whole listing, creaking, reeking edifice stands like one of those obsolete Las Vegas pleasure palaces awaiting a mere pulse of electrons to ignite a thousand explosive charges perfectly placed to blow away the structural supports.

The inertia holding everything together that I described in last year's forecast finally melted away at mid-summer and events began spooling out of control. Specifically, the massive tonnage of debt-backed securities circulating through the financial sector stood revealed for the mostly worthless bales of paper they truly are, and the investment community was left suspended in mid-air, grinning unconvincingly, like Wile E. Coyote thirteen yards beyond the edge of the mesa, with a sputtering grenade in each hand and an anvil tied to his ankles ...

I suppose I do have a couple of minor resolutions -- more time with the kids, more production on the day job, finish my books, grow more of our own food, a speedy and complete rehab, etc. -- but nothing really too terribly profound. Hope that's not jinxing things somehow.

Here's to a decent 2008, anyway.

Postscript: Wouldn't you know it. The folks down the road are doing their own fireworks show. And Pepper is now sitting on top of my head, shaking like a damn jackhammer. A good dog, but not excessively fond of loud noise.