It seems like the first two weeks of January have kind of flown by. I could only hope the rest of the winter goes by at the same pace. I don’t know that I have ever watched so much TV in my entire life but there are no sporting events, concerts or other major activities to really attend. Thank goodness streaming TV has got a lot of my wife and I’s attention. We have hit on some good series like the “Queens Gambit” and the new version of “Lost in Space.” We can’t do binge watching so we try and watch a part each night.
It’s a good time to have streaming TV. Without all the different shows on I have a feeling there would be a lot of people at home going stir crazy. The other good thing about January so far is that the sun has made several appearances on most days. It’s when it becomes cloudy and dreary, day after day, that people begin to go into that “January funk.” Let’s just hope the groundhog is good to us this year!
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Several of the federal offices will be closed that day, plus there will be no mail delivery and we do not print the Creston News Advertiser that day either. Most of the general businesses are open.
Football
The college football season is over with. Some of the football “gurus” are already making their guesses on how next year will look. It could be a good year for Iowa and Iowa State fans again with Iowa predicted to be No. 15 in the poll and Iowa State cast as the number six team in the country coming out of the blocks.
The NFL is set for another playoff weekend this coming weekend with favorites Green Bay and Kansas City playing. I think it would be fun to see them both in the Super Bowl game. The game will be played Feb. 7 in Tampa Bay. The Weekend musical group is this year’s half time entertainment.
Changes
Lots of changes are taking place at Union County courthouse. We have a new sheriff and a possible new county attorney with Tim Kenyon thinking about retiring. This is just part of the many changes that will happen over the next few years due to the “baby boomers” looking at hanging up their hats. The county is still also looking for a new engineer. It just just keeps getting harder and harder to find good people. The Iowa unemployment rate is at 3.6% which is super low when you are looking for workers.
I read in an article recently that Iowa is number 10 of the top 10 states that people are moving out of, which will only make it harder to find potential employees. High income and property taxes are starting to take their toll on attracting good help.
Vaccine
I’m hoping the state can get things rolling a little better on getting the vaccine shots out in the coming couple of months. I read where there will be a couple of more vaccines coming out in the next three weeks to help in the COVID war. It would be great if most everyone could get vaccinated by summer. Keep social distancing, wash your hands often and have your mask handy to help out the cause.
Hunting
It looks like there was some good hunting success this year. Especially if you were looking for pheasants, ducks, geese or deer. Pheasants, especially, have made a good comeback. Let’s just hope that continues on into next year.
Thought for the week: “It’s better to hang out with people better than you.: ~ Warren Buffet