New Year's Eve oysters with champagne...gotta try that one sometime! Com'on Ted...average? Every year is a gift that needs to be lived to the fullest-extent possible. Fight all the battles that need to be fought and then... make the time to celebrate your life in your own way. Be it in the forests, the streams, or on on the lakes and oceans, get out there and drink in the sights and sounds. Heck, I still get a thrill rolling down a nice lonely stretch of road on my old muscle car, listening to the throaty roar of a big cubic-inch American V-8 coming up through the gears. The smile of a handsome woman, the laughter of a happy child, the wind through the trees above you, the waves on a shore, connect to these things and be part of the living world, and not just on it. Hunt & fish, and break bread with your friends and family, drink good beers & fine wines with your meals, sit in front of fires and appreciate the heat and the light. Let the tempests blow around you and know that a new dawn will break for you the next day.
I would wish all of these things for everybody gathered here, people who appreciate beautiful things with a form that follows function. Tools with art and history and perhaps even a little magic folded into their making, that serve generations of people, faithfully and well, and that become heirlooms in their own right. Make 2024 count.
You, sir, can
write.May champagne and oysters rain upon you-- after you've cleaned and put the shotgun away, of course.
