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2023 still sounds like a Van Halen record or a futuristic movie title, it’s hard to believe it’s actually here.  Duran Duran helped bring in the new year last night on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve by playing a medley of their hits from the 80′s.  Jenny and I didn’t stay up to watch the ball drop, but her brother Ben did.  When he texted us that he had seen Duran Duran performing at 10:39, I went looking for it online this morning, and found another video of them doing the same songs on MTV 40 years ago in 1982.  These days the lead singer has a middle aged spread, but he can still hit the high notes.  Rock on wild boys.  Happy new year.

The day is dripping like ketchup from a half empty bottle, and creeping like an elderly person without a walker.  Time never moves this slow when I want it to, only when I’m at work, or enduring something.  At this point I don’t care who wins, the ketchup, the old man, it doesn’t matter.  I just want one of them to cross the finish line so I can clock out and go home.

Terrorizing small villages can be very stressful.  It’s especially exhausting when you’re shocked in consciousness by a bolt of lightning and trying to outrun an angry mob carrying torches– and they KNOW you are deathly afraid of fire!  If anyone needed a smoke break and a spot of tea it was Boris Karloff in 1930 when he played Frankenstein’s monster.

Molly is our oldest niece.  I can remember when she sat on my lap as a toddler and asked me to read her the Sunday comics.  Now she brings her guitar and asks me to sing and play songs with her.  I will always say yes.  Last weekend she came down for Sydney’s wedding and we sang Goodnight Irene and other songs by the chimenea.

This kid will punch you in the face, steal your hoppity hop, and then drink chocolate milk with her preschool pals!  And if you try to make a joke about her hair, you might wake up with peanut butter on your pillow case!  I’m talking about Dan and Jessica’s little girl, Ava.  She’s actually a shy and quiet little kid until you get on her bad side, like the person who took this photo.

He barely eats, he throws up a little, and then he acts like everything is fine.  The only thing that literally shakes him up is when he goes to the vet because he doesn’t know if I’m going to leave him there or not.  I’m talking about our cat, Max.  He had a couple of teeth pulled in August and he hasn’t really been eating right since.  We’ve tried a few things and a couple of visits to the vet… now I think it’s in God’s hands… and Max’s paws.  I pray that I can accept what will happen in the event of his demise, and keep giving this stubborn little cat my love and care.  The pic above is his usual spot between my right leg and the arm of the recliner.

I wasn’t actually in front of a TV screen when video killed the radio star, but you can bet I watched MTV every chance I got during the 1980′s– and I watched it at Hoovie’s house!  We only got the three major networks at my house, but Hoovie had cable, and that meant he had MTV, God bless him!  I can still remember thinking “it will always be this way, watching music videos, eating junk food, drinking soda…” I had no idea how fleeting those days would be.  Now when I get a hankering for videos by the Motels, Huey Lewis, the Kinks, or ABC, all running together and hosted by the original VJ’s, I just pop in a flash drive full of 80′s goodness that I downloaded from archive.org and go back in time to Hoovie’s living room.

One minute it was 1:00 in the afternoon, and the next minute it was noon.  Tuesday we drove west to Paxton, NE and crossed over into Mountain Time.  There were no mountains, but I did have a sense of deja vu.  I had been here before, but this time I was going with the deliberate intention of traveling back in time, even if it was just for one hour.  We parked our time machine next to an old depot that is now an antique shop.  Turns out it was a stopping point for George Wyman, the first man to ride a motorcycle across the country in 1903.  According to the locals he stopped in Paxton to wait out a storm that lasted 3 hours.  Later he spent the night in Maxwell.

It was a little chilly and windy, but it was worth it.  Wednesday we climbed up 5 flights to the top of a lookout tower in the Halsey National Forest.  It was part of our week long visit to Jenny’s western Nebraska roots.  From that height we could see eye to eye with one turkey buzzard who briefly glided within spitting distance.  He was either taking in the sights or looking for his lunch.

Unless I was on my deathbed, the answer was obvious.  Christy invited me to go geocaching with her family and I accepted.  It was a new experience for Ben (pictured above on the left) and Katelyn to go looking through bushes, under rocks, and along fences for treasure– and we found three out of four!  It was one of the last cool mid-50′s nights before the temps started rising, and it was glorious.  So glad I still have some bloodhound in my veins to go sniffing around for hidden containers full of foreign coins, rubber balls, and other trinkets!