If you missed seeing Jupiter blazing beneath a brilliant crescent moon last night, it would be worth it to bundle up tonight and wander outside around 7:30 or 8:00 and look for it. It is amazing to see those extra terrestrials hanging in the sky, glowing in the sun that is hitting the back side of our planet. The enormity of Jupiter, being so far away in the frozen outer space of the solar system and yet reflecting back so brilliantly in our night sky is food for wonderment.

It is 2009. I didn't think about what I'd be like in 2009 when I was a boy. I do remember thinking about that I'd be 49 in 2000. Now at times I wonder how long I will make it. Our good friends Pat and John lost her mother yesterday. My dad is talking about the pain in his hips that nearly paralyze him and he wonders about hip replacement at 85. I saw that the clocks are being corrected a leap second as we go to 2009. Seems the earth's rotation is slowing and we will lose a whole hour in the next 1000 years, without corrections that is. There is little that is certain in life. Plan for retirement--don't count on it. Your best plans may fail. Money in the bank or your mattress, about the same it seems, is fairly safe, but diminishing in relationship to what you can do with it as sure as the earth is turning. The stock market--well that is ridiculously scarey, down 40 to 45 % this year. It will be awhile before we see 14,000 on the Dow Jones average again.

The only certain thing is that I am alive and feel healthy at this moment and I must wring as much joy out of today as I can. We have had a joyful holiday, filled with beautiful singing, hugs, and smiles. Old George Bailey really was the richest man in Bedford Falls.