What Will 2008 Bring?

What kind of a year will 2008 be? If the first 2 weeks are any indication, it will be lots of politics. Of course, that's not a prediction,but maybe a given, since it's an election year and there have been so many states trying to get into the early primary act. It should be interesting, but maybe not so nice, given the recent history of political races. It would be nice if the candidates and their workers could raise the bar a bit and clean things up and stop using fear as tactic. Unfortunately, fear is such a good tool. Maybe, since the currant administrtion has used it so darn much, the American public has gotten more discerning. I do believe that the electorate is getting sick and tiredof business as usual. At any rate, if you have a low tolerance for politics, you may have to turn off the evening news.

I'm afraid that we maybe in for a bumpy ride when it comes to the economy though. Much of the news isn't so good. The problems caused by subprime loans and the housing slump is bad enough, but now unemployment isn't looking too stable. It's also been, so far, a rough winter which can be costly to states and municipalities, not to mention, private citizens dealing with some pretty extreem weather in parts of the country.

Only time will tell how the year will go. I guess we'll just keep our eyes open, and do the best we can with what we're given. Pretty much like always.

Thoughts On Christmas

Now that Christmas is over, maybe I can make some sense of some of the feelings that I was having. For the 3 weeks before Christmas, I was heavily involved with selling "events"where you spend 2 or 3 days selling either the same or related products. I found that I really got quite emotionally invested in selling the products. Maybe it was because I was selling products that I really enjoy myself, like various cheeses and dips. I got so involved,that I didn't realise how close to Christmas it had gotten. Whoa! Time to try to get the rest of my shopping done! One day, I was walking past some fresh pine wreaths we had for sale and caught the fragrance.It nearly made me cry with the memories and feelings it brought up. I was missing a lot of the things I usually did around Christmas. I was spending so much time at work, and even away from work, planning my demos and checking my sales, that I hadn't really done some of the things I usually enjoy. We usually drive around to see people's light displays, but with the price of gas and all the snow storms we had, I missed that. It's not really a big deal on that, but what I had missed, was taking time to contemplate and enjoy the season. I didn't even do any baking or candy making either.

When Christmas came, it was very nice, though quiet. My daughter seemed to enjoy things and we were able to have her with us for a few days. I had planned to call my son and his family, but didn't manage that either. I guess after all the rushing, I kind of became a little slow and quiet. I suspect that's probably something I needed.