We have gone just about a week into 2009. It is the new year we have all been waiting for.

Several people I have cautioned about wishing their life away by wanting things to hurry up and bring 2009 right on to us. I have found out that we can sometimes get what we have asked for and find that is not what we really wanted in the first place or second or third or any other place.

Back in April of 2004, one of my good buds had an accident and died. His wife was devastated and it was hard on the rest of us also. I made the comment at the end of 2004 that I would be glad to put that year behind us and get on with a new year. We did put the year behind us and 10 days into 2005 I had my heart attack. Now I don’t even wish for the bad or good to speed up or slow down. We here at my house take it as it comes. We wish for no extra.

Thinking back over the last few weeks we have had a good time during the several holidays. Thanksgiving was all about food and family. Christmas was good also. My nephews put in an order for the food they missed during Thanksgiving so it would be included at the Christmas feast. It was and they ate it as well as all the other food items that were on the table. When you get as big as they are, it takes a hearty meal or two per day to keep them going and some right good cheese cake is not bad either. Cheese cake is not part of the cake family so we make room for it on the pie section of the table as well as the stomach. My younger nephew and I ate one each out of the five that made it to the feast. None of the rest was to be found later either.

With the exception of the first couple of days of Christmas week, the weather was much warmer than any of us had expected the weather to be for the holiday. And it ran for almost a week after Christmas. The fishermen as well as the folks in the fishing tackle business had a right good time and plenty of fish were caught by the folks that know how to fish and some fish we caught by those folks that don’t know all that much about fishing.

It would be a blessing if the spring of 2009 brought to us one of the best fishing spring seasons that we have had in a long time. With the shape that the economy is in as well as the government, we could surely use a few good fishing trips to take all the bad stuff off our minds if just for a little while.

Those few days of warmer-than-average weather for the fishermen was followed by some cooler weather just for the hunters. Most of the major hunting seasons will be going out in a week or so. As good as the weather has been there is no doubt that a few days after the deer season goes out the weather will get down to what we call deer hunting cold and the hunters will start wishing that the season ran further into the new year.

I know it wouldn’t hurt their feelings if the season ran until the end of January. I wouldn’t mind it either if we didn’t have to give up time at the beginning of the deer season. I know, let’s propose that we give up the entire first month of the squirrel season in exchange for two weeks tacked onto the end of the deer season. Change it so that only bucks were legal or only does were legal. Just being out there is the best part anyway.

I get to go to a fishing tackle show in a few days as well as a turkey hunting show. Right here in Decatur County, we have some of the best fishermen in the state and also we have a few of the top turkey hunters in the south also. Fishing is still running in about a half high gear, but over the last two or three years the turkey season has gone almost to pot. Maybe the hunters are keeping quiet and not telling us the things that are really happening out there. Hopefully that is it and the turkey hunting is still on the increase. We don’t need anything to slow down including the fishing or sucker netting.