This happens to be our favorite time of year, as it is for so many of you, and we’re embracing the Warm and Fuzzy feelings generated by the Holidays as descending rain and fog is offset by Christmas trees and a fire in our fireplace.
While the story line of our National Politics seems to be paralleling a script from Homeland, we take time to embrace one another, indulge in some great food and toast The Absent whose places at the table we have marked with photographs and upside-down glasses.
Blessedly this year, we’ve been spared the traditional imagery of store managers in white shirts and clip-on ties wielding bats to ward off advancing ranks of frenzied consumers, perhaps as we reexamine our slavish devotion to the Gods of Consumerism and folks consider a possible onset of the R-Word.
While our particular World View may be focused on the numeric designation of our name, our audience is diverse enough to paint a picture of the prevailing attitudes in California – and dare we say America? – today.
We hear tales of neighbors reexamining lifestyles, scaling back on expenditures and minimizing debt. Some, to our distress, are choosing to move out entirely – as we have written about in the past – and their leaving means the state seems a little less like California with them gone.
Others are vexed by the seemingly dramatic escalation of property crimes we seem to be experiencing, with crooks appearing to strike at will, hauling away safes, jewels, and electronics – in some cases while people are at home.
We may be partly responsible for this Chicken Little Effect, covering stories that may otherwise have never seen the light of day, and creating a perception that things are off the rails. Law enforcement professionals acknowledge the increase in property crimes but maintain that all other crimes are in decline. We hope that is in fact the case but we have also been rocked by some shockingly violent incidents in our area, of late, and that has led to some marked changes in approach.
Our approach has led to an increased readership – for which we are grateful – and we don’t have any plans to change things, being creatures of habit and believers in the whole “don’t fix it if it ain’t broke” maxim.
All in all, we have a lot to be thankful for this year. We’re making solid progress, meeting some good people along the way, and plying our trade – something fewer and fewer businesses of our type can say.
Thanks to all of you who came along for the ride.
