079 HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017

As we start a brand-new year, 2017, I must look back on the year that has just passed.  It was a sad year and a happy year, but more sadness than is usual.  There were an awful lot of celebrities who left us far too soon, but other than a few, I have no personal connection to.  They are celebrities and nothing more.  They have no direct impact in my life other than to entertain.

DAWNING ON A NEW YEAR

I am sadder for the numerous law enforcement officers that were lost across North America last year.  The trend across the United States especially is the targeted murder of those officers.  The hatred towards them perpetuated by those misguided individuals who blame the police for their own faults and mistakes.

I am more saddened again by the list of former colleagues that have passed on.  They are the ones who had a direct impact on my life and that I feel the connection to.  They are the ones who will be missed the most and remembered most fondly.  All we can do is hope that we lose far less in 2017.

We spent a very quiet evening at home and got a chance to get to know a couple of our new neighbours.  The evening allowed us to get to know each other better and to advance our growing friendships.  It was even better because at the end of the evening it was just a short walk across the street to get home.

We closed the old year with a huge dump of snow that started very gently yesterday morning and was off and on until about 1:30 PM when it began in earnest and did not let up all night, in fact at 5:00 AM, as I write this, it is still snowing.  It is probably the largest accumulation of snow we have gotten, of the number of snowfalls we have had.  There looks to be 3-4 inches of snow out there.

Normally, we spend New Year’s Eve with friends in Vancouver, with a group of friends in Vancouver, where we get together for a feast of crab.  This year it has been postponed until next weekend due to conflicting work schedules.  As it turns out, with the snowfall, it was probably a good thing.  The less people on the road, the better.

Our neighbour Geri arrived first.  She is retired like me, but still works part time at a local big box retailer.  She just does it for fun and to keep busy.  Marie came over as well.  She is employed in the television sports industry and works for a major network, although she is in the process of branching out into her own production company.  Her partner Sarah, who is a serving RCMP officer was out on the street, protecting us all and could not make it this time.

SANTA STILL HERE

That could change though as we learned she has been promoted and will be moving into a position that won’t require her to work shifts now.  Everyone had such amazing stories and life experiences to share and it was a very entertaining and pleasant evening.  I look forward to the next time we can get together.

So here we are, into a brand-new year.  It has all the hopes and dreams of previous years, but hopefully will produce a greater percentage of good memories this time, than all the bad ones that we had last year.  Wishing all my readers, family and friends a Happy, Prosperous and Safe 2017.

I will close with a partial listing of those we lost far too soon.  I was originally going to list the names of all law enforcement officers killed in 2016, but just in the United States alone there were 135.  More than half of those were by gunfire.  It was a tragic year in that respect.

There were 60 celebrities as well, the most notable of whom, for me, were Gordie Howe, Muhammed Ali, Arnold Palmer, Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds and John Glenn.  Yes, there are other big names who are now gone, but these are the ones who had the biggest impact on me personally.

The list of mostly retired and serving members of the Vancouver Police who died in 2016 is as follows.  Most of these members, I served with and will remember fondly:  Ed Leask, Bill Warwick, Rudi Sturm, Tommy Lloyd, Art Chinn, Art Fairbank, Dicky Pugh, Malcolm Fish, Bill Smith, Ray MacNeny, Randy Peterson, Simon Tanner, Cliff Weeks, Ward Rowan, Al Ens, Beth Martlew, John Leary, Ian Young, Don Bullough, John Keen and Al Huff.