State Of Union 2015

Well 2014 has ended and we start into the unknown waters of 2015.For some bizarre reason November was an abnormally cold month and then December was a reasonably mild one. We were in NYC to celebrate our anniversary and it occurred during the weekend of Santa Con.There were some protests down by the Brooklyn Bridge and City Hall concerning Ferguson, but there's always some kind of protests in the Big Apple and it was barely noticed. We  went to see "Once" and it was ok , not great ,but ok. Then we went to see "Hedwig and the Angry Inch"and I rate it right up there with"Cats ", which means I would be more entertained with a fist fight on the subway. How entertaining can a transvestite rock singer with a heavy metal band be? The gay guy that used to be on Frazier had started the lead role but was in it only a month. The new lead role is played by a seemingly straight guy that was the lead character on Dexter, which I've never seen.The only thing worse than Hedwig was the pain in my knees from the cramped seats. I decided to get Sandy a mixed drink before the show so told the bartender I wanted a diet coke and Canadian Club. He asked single or double and I told him a single. He said $15  and I was glad I had asked for a single.We had wanted to see Beautiful again but the price for two tickets was in the range of $500 so we opted out of that rather quickly. The weather in NYC was really nice and we went down to the 9-11 memorial and looked at the finished World Trade Center.Earlier in November we had flown down to Homestead, Florida to see the final Nascar race of the season and Sandy had rented a house in Hollywood about 10 minutes from Fort Lauderdale Airport, where we had flown in . Hollywood has a wonderful historic downtown with some really good restaurants where we ate several nights. Our phones showed night temperatures in the teens back home and we were eating Italian food under the stars in Hollywood. We drove by Miami on our way to Key West on the Saturday before the race and that was probably the best part of the whole weekend. Temps in the low 80s as we went through Largo , Marathon, and over the Seven Mile Bridge. It always brings good memories to be back in the Keys. There's something about blue water meeting the blue sky that makes you want to pack up your possessions and head south, at least for January and February. That is not to be however, as we are committed to projects that are filling our schedules until at least the middle of April. One of our projects is atop a mountain in Eastern Kentucky that is gravity defying at times, especially if it is raining. Some of our best custom wood projects are taking shape in some of the most artistic homes being built.This all comes at a cost of being on I-75 at least three days a week going to Tennessee and Eastern Kentucky, which last year was going to Western Kentucky. The big difference is that it is costing us $35 less per fillup in a monster old suv that craves premium gasoline and gets 12 miles per gallon. So the first blessing of my State of the Union is $1.96 gasoline. I find it hard to feel sorry for the Big Oil Companies. They have been gouging us since 1974.Its funny that my suppliers that kept adding fuel surcharges on us have not talked about taking them off, something that we are going to start talking about in the coming months.I'm also starting to get hostile with Dish Network that keeps taking off programming and raising rates. When I complain they say that they are adding more shows. Thats BS! They keep adding shopping channels and crap that noone watches. The trend is everyone is streaming and going back to antennas and local programming. The history channel ,TLC, and animal planet ceased being educational and flooded the air with reality tv. I'm tired of watching moonshiners, Turtle Man , and Alien files. Are there no producers or writers left?Are there no subjects for movies other than XMen, Hobbits,and Vampires? And Frozen??? What can I say?Elsa and Anna have taken the place of Miley and Brittany.,I think the sales for Frozen is what got us out of the Depression/Recession. The other thing I am happiest and thankful for is that the nastiest political race between McConnell and Allison Grimes is over. Its a shame that the two mudslingers could not have both lost. Then next year we have the Governors race here in Kentucky. I noticed that Kentucky is the fifth worst run state in the Union. That will give the politicians plenty of goals to strive for. On a positive note if you want to leave Kentucky fast you can download an app and your boarding pass is now on your smart phone. The airlines are charging you $5 to print you a boarding pass, just one more reason to drive. The medical news is that we had about 2 weeks of media driven ebola panic and then it went away. People in Africa are still dying but the media shifted our attentions to elections and Ferguson.Now they say our flu shots are not going to be effective because they guessed the wrong flu strain or flu du jour.I read Charlie Ergan, the founder of Dish Network is worth $ 9 billion and is striving to give us the best value in TV programming. I'm betting that you won't miss me  when I unsubscribe Charlie.All in All my State of the Union is Ok. Its off to Eastern Kentucky tomorrow but with Blue Skies and blue water in my heart.