Happy New Year!

Boy I suck at this update stuff. :P  

Although, looking at the date stamp of my last post, it was just around the the time our busy season started to really ramp up at work. Plus add in a system glitch that resulted in me not getting document notifications for 2 weeks that I had to  play catch up on, a new hire I had to train, and then throw in some ongoing health concerns that required a number of doctor/dentist visits, tests, etc, (ie time off from work that I had to catch back up on) and before you know it, the rest of 2016 was gone.

But it's a new year(!). All my loved ones are whole and hardy. I'm still employed, able to pay my bills-- not small concern here: there were federal government changes to the mortgage industry that caused a number of layoffs. One of our sister companies laid off 6 people 3 wks before Xmas. And a competitor shut down a whole division. 60 people out of work weeks before Xmas. That competitor then outsourced that work to our company, which put an end to a couple of months of lowkey stress/uncertainty for us. :-P   I'm also going to be thankful for being in reasonably good heath, just dealing with the aches/pains of not being 20 anymore. ;) The international political landscape has me concerned, and very thankful for living in Canada (although I don't believe for a second we'll be fully insulated from the ensuing ramification of happens in our global village). But aside from that I'm staying positive!

If I have any 'resolutions' they are:

cut down on the sugar. On the whole, while I rarely pass up dessert,  I don't have a lot of sugary stuff/snacks on the regular, but when I do have too much sugar, or the wrong type (I'm looking at you fructuous/glucose) I end up feeling crappy. Almost hangover-ish. (Nope. Not diabetic. Not even borderline. So says the results of the multiple blood work I had done last year).

Also want to try to eat more vegetable/vegetarian meals. Partly because I think it'll be healthier, partly because I think large-scale commercial/conglomerate animal husbandry is an environmental concern. (but I'm going to admit to being a bit of hypocrite here because while I'm not a big meat eater, I not willing to forego it completely.

Round off my resolutions list with: exercise more regularly, drink more water, and less coffees,  get enough sleep, spend time with friends, be more disciplined about budgets/finances re long-term goals.

Also, read more 'quality' writing. Notice I didn't say 'quality books'.  Sometimes a book is really entertaining, or has a premise intriguing enough that you'll slog through to the end to find out what happens. Or it's a mindless fast/quick read and that's all your up for.  And sometimes that's all you need. Those books are all perfectly satisfactory for those needs.

Unfortunately, **my** experience has been that *a lot* of my readings in the last couple of years that fall under these categories do not really have strong writing.  That's probably why it's much easier to not finish a book or start it and put it down for weeks/months before picking it up again.  Or I'll finish that one book, but feel no particular urgency to go and check out the author's backlist/next release. 

More importantly, quality/good writing (being totally subjective here!) inspires me -- to write. I've not felt that fire in my belly for a good long while.  And I need it because, last item on my resolutions list, or maybe I should say first item, is that I'm going to try yet again to find the right balance for making writing (including this blog) a regular part of my life again.

So, I'll end this rambling first of the year post by hoping everyone out there is keeping safe, healthy and has some modicum of happiness and balance in their lives. :)

Here's to good eating, good reading, good lovin', good friends.  Here's to all of you.

Peace.
VJ