Here's Wishing 2016 Could Go On Forever.....

In the last couple of weeks, I've been reading plenty of good riddance messages to the year 2016 from personal acquaintances and national media figures alike.  Far as I can tell, the celebrity body count is the primary source of their consternation with the year 2016.  I guess 2016 did have more than its share of VIP casualties, but that strikes me as a pretty small grievance with a year that ends with 7 1/2 years of ongoing economic expansion, a very limited wartime footprint, and sane political leadership.  I'll give you a reason why 2017 is gonna make 2016 look like the good old days.....a raging sociopath is about to become the most powerful man in the world!

I've never been one to look to the future with naive optimism, but it's been a very long time since I've approached a new year with as little to be enthusiastic about than I do 2017.  Some personal bummers approach me in 2017, including turning 40 years old and the likelihood that my boyhood home will be bulldozed, but far and away the biggest iceberg on the horizon is that 20 days into the new year, an unhinged, narcissistic loose cannon will officially become America's President, a man who is arguably less suited for a position of national political leadership than anyone else who lives in America.  The possibilities are not endless for 2017, they are bottomless.  Don't toast champagne at midnight on Sunday, chug Jack Daniels from the biggest bottle you can.