Sayonara To 2016

     No, this won’t be an end-of-year roundup of high (or low) points. It’s just little old me, Underdog your Curmudgeon Emeritus, bidding 2016 a not terribly fond farewell.

     Actually, for us here at the Fortress of Crankitude, it was a pretty good year. We remained healthy, avoided debt, had no accidents of note, kept our animals in good condition, and generally enjoyed ourselves. I’ll look back on the year with no regrets.

     However, among the folks I know are several who didn’t have a good year by my standard. Some had occupational reversals. Others had health setbacks. A couple had the poor grace to die. When I’ve been able to help, I’ve helped; at other times, I’ve kept them in my prayers. The same goes for the C.S.O., whose charities are separate from mine and will not be discussed here.

     I made a couple of new friends. One is near, the other is distant. The farther one has been pressing me to relocate to his part of the country. The nearer one regularly expresses her hope – indirectly, of course – that I never, ever take it into my head to move. I can’t satisfy both of them, so I do what those caught between two opposing forces tend to do: I temporize. As is usually the case, the C.S.O. will probably have the last word.

     Early in the year I had a fresh cancer scare. Those are nothing new for me; I’ve had a bunch of them. But being told that my worries were groundless is always a relief. It’s not that I fear death; I just don’t want to go that way. Too many of my relatives fell to the Big C, and in no case was it pretty.

     In June I released my tenth novel, one I never expected to write: Love In The Time Of Cinema, a rather fanciful romance. The reviewers have been kind. More important, I reread it rather often with a mixture or pleasure and puzzlement, and always with the question “Did I really write that? It’s so far from my usual oeuvre.”

     On December 1 I released my eleventh novel: Statesman, the last of the Realm of Essences family...maybe. The requests for more have been many. At the moment, my resolve to go on to something else is strong, but every morning brings fresh email and fresh uncertainties.

     And of course, just about every day I’ve poured out a thousand or so words of op-ed here at Liberty’s Torch, to please my Gentle Readers. I feel an obligation to produce such pieces as often as possible. I hope they satisfy the appetites of those who come by looking for some intellectual junk food.

     But as Chad Stuart has told us, all good things must end someday. Today is that day for the Year of Our Lord 2016.

     May God bless and keep you all, and may your 2017 be joyous from end to end.

Happy New Year!