Happy New Year!

Here's a Happy 2009 to everyone, with a photo of the last sunset of last year, 2008. I thought about getting up and taking a photo of the first sunrise of this new year, but needed to sleep in. I'm still recovering: mostly from the flu-bug, but also from traveling.

Yesterday, travels started in the cold ice fog of Grand Junction and continued into the not-quite-so-cold ice fog of Utah's Sevier desert. That was quite an unexpected adventure, which could have been avoided by spending the night in Delta, Utah. Another almost adventure could have been avoided by filling the gas tank in Delta, Utah. Fortunately, although the gas pumps at the Nevada-Utah border truck-stop were either broken or empty, there was gas available at a card-reader station in the small town of Baker, Nevada. Otherwise I might still be at either the truck stop or in Baker, waiting for a gas delivery or pump fixing.

The year has started out with various geolutions, resolutions, and predictions going around the geoblogosphere.

Resolutions:
The poll (Clastic Detritus).
The results (my choices came in first and third, but many items on the list were not geared toward my line of work - surprisingly!)
Resolutions for Safer Slopes (Dave's Landslide Blog)

Geolutions:
Christie at the Cape
NOVA Geoblog
Magma Cum Laude
10 ABSOLUTELY BEST Resolutions for Geologists (Andrew's About.com) - This list is great! The first thing on it is "See More Rocks." Not only do I wholeheartedly ascribe to much if not all that is on this list, I'm pretty sure I can at least succeed on the first one! And I like that.

Predictions:
Clastic Detritus
Geotripper
Green Gabbro
Hypo-Theses
[And stay tuned, in case more geo-predictions come through geoblogospheric crystal balls or pizzas.]

With all that, one might suspect that I would now chime in with some resolutions, geolutions, or predictions - but I typically don't get around to that sort of thing until late in the month, and besides, I have my New Year's Year-End Letter to write (some people call those Christmas Letters), and first thing, I've absolutely got to knock out this dang bug! [I don't know if I've ever said "dang" in real life, but I have met a few people who do, and some of my favorite people say "darn" on occasion.]

I'd also like to point out that I missed out on December's Accretionary Wedge and January's Scientiae due to general and overall holiday-type busy-ness. The former blog carnival may not be published yet, but the latter is, and has many good posts relating to the closings and openings of various doors, and much relating to the ending of one year and the beginning of another. Currently, I'm not sure of my status with respect to certain doors, but the doors I'm aware of don't seem to be opening or closing with precise calendrical timing.

Last but not least, this morning I met up with MOH for the first time in almost two weeks. He has been working - and taking only the usual time off - while I was out visiting relatives. He did have time while I was gone to get in a few overnight snow hikes and camps, but that's another story...