Enter 2008

Though it ended as well and as peacefully as could be expected, 2007 started off with me in the hospital with kidney stones for the second time in seven months. This was certainly not the way one wants to start any year, really, but what seemed then like a harbinger for a truly terrible year was really just an isolated affair.

I suppose it goes without saying that 2007 could have been a lot better (having a few grand in the bank and still being delirious over an Indians world championship would have been really nice, for starters) and it also could have been a lot worse than it wound up becoming (that settlement from Hillcrest really saved my ass, considering the cash I'd be dealing out a few months down the road). The truly bad news for the year would be the bill coming due for not visiting a dentist's office for the better part of two decades, yet on the other side of the coin, I have now been literally stone-free and smoke-free for exactly a year as I write this. The money saved from that sacrifice alone (4 bucks a day times 365) doesn't quite make up for the expenditures to keep myself with a mouthful of choppers for the foreseeable future, but it definitely helped.

With all of that now officially in the past, here's to a great 2008 for everyone. This is not going to be a cakewalk by any means; I still have some work cut out for me in the tooth department (nowhere near as nasty as this year's ordeals, but still to the probable tune of 2-3 grand), and I'd very much like to get enough money put aside to get a new (used) car sometime in early 2009. With a little bit of luck, these will be the only big hurdles to jump over the next 12 months.

Oh, and maybe I can lose a few of these twenty "stop smoking" pounds I've put on since last January 1 as well ...