This will be my last newsletter for 2025. I am taking some time to myself the next two weeks. My staff will be taking care of their families, and I will return fiercely in January 2026 with a new path, purpose and plan.
In the past, my last newsletter for the year has been a wrap up of the year’s events. I can’t bring myself to rehash the year’s happenings for fear that I will be so boring that sleep will be inevitable. Instead, I thought I would mention what I saw yesterday. On my route to play tennis there are the typical residences decorated for the holidays. But one house caught my attention. In the front yard of this immaculately landscaped dwelling was at least a 30-foot inflatable reindeer. Let’s assume a behemoth Rudolph. I imagine when this person brought this monstrosity home and started inflating without knowing that it would take 3 days to blow up. The child in him was lit up. This reindeer inflatable is so large that ropes had to be installed to keep it from floating away. A truly Macy’s day parade size float. In my mind, I imagine that this was a father (I am assuming a father purchased this huge Rudolph because what Mom would be so impractical). He must have ordered it online with breathless anticipation of its epic arrival. A team of volunteers must have been enlisted to wrangle this massive Rudolph into position. A phone call was placed to a neighbor, “Hey Jim its Rob. I got a project going on here can you stop by and give me a hand? Bring the fellas will ya.“ I imagine this guy’s wife and kids driving back from shopping with their necks craning in the car to grasp the height of this thing. Complete glee enraptured the kids while his wife must be thinking, “Well it is only for a couple of weeks.”
Happy Holidays.
Remember that for some people the holidays are reminders of people lost and relationships ended so be kind to one another.
See you in 2026.
Albert R. Hartley