The Year in Review

2019…  It was a year.

The Cold Civil Cultural War (CCCW) rages on.  Two sides that are convinced that their side is right, and more importantly, the other side is not just wrong but evil.  It touches just about every news story today.  The irony is, the issues I am most concerned about (the growing debt, how involved should the US be in foreign wars) isn’t really discussed by either side in the CCCW.  It’s all about making sure one side wins and the other side loses.  And with the election coming up in 2020, I expect the CCCW to, if possible, get even more inflamed.

Sports- I abandoned professional (American) football.  A combination of too many bad people involved in the sport and a concussion issue that is swept under the rug and cannot be fixed.  I still follow baseball and basketball, though the NBA sent a clear message that what they WANT is six to ten Superteams and the rest are versions of the Washington Generals to job out to the Superteams. 

Things sound down, but they aren’t.  If you tune out the Cultural War, in so many ways life is getting better.  We are living longer, and the worst forms of poverty are being eradicated.  There are problems- there always are- but things are better than they are often portrayed.

On a personal level…. I became a Pescatarian this past year.  I just finally decided I couldn’t eat meat anymore.  I thought this would help with my weight loss, and I was wrong (when I eat less meat, I tend to more bread…)  But both Katie and I are healthy and doing well.  We also joined The Houde School this year, and are learning quite a bit.  The Improv classes are outstanding, and I can’t recommend them enough.

My grandmother, Elsie Vortanz Sonby Pittman-Kosteroski, passed away at the age of 93.  She raised five children under difficult circumstances- the more I learned about her life, both from her and after she passed, the more I learned to admire her.  

Farewell to the old year.  On Wednesday, we welcome in 2020…