Whirly-birds

I gotta admit I spent some time this year watching the print journalism balloon floating toward the horizon.  More than once, I had to shake the nagging out-of-body vision of us clinging to each other in the basket as it sinks lower and lower toward the horizon (Insert image of hot air balloon descent and "Nearer My God to Thee" played by a string quartet..)  Sometimes, us was just Randy and me, but usually us included all our newspaper loved ones, near and far.

But where's the joy in these shoot-me-now scenarios? And, isn't the horizon just a perpetual mirage anyway?

My preferred  image of descent is that of the whirly-bird - you know those brown winged maple seed pods from childhood.  I used to gather them and toss them aloft and dreamily imagine I was a tiny spinning fairy enjoying gravity's tug earthward.  You toss them aloft over and over until you get hungry or have to pee and then you go home. 

And the killer benefit is that they hold the promise of solid future growth.  Take THAT 2008!

So here are my top 7 good news moments of 2008..

7.   Web news thrives and now supports Elena.

6.   Plate glass windows shatter into tiny pieces that don't always do permanent damage.

5.   Jackson can both play a mean guitar and fix our dishwasher.

4.   Pacemakers exist and one in particular exists in front of my Mom's left pectoral.

3.   Susan and Tom met White Hawk.

2.  Katie and Seth met Reece.

1.   November 4, 2008