All writers in Op Ed are here to inform and acknowledge issues of importance to our communities, however these writings represent the views and opinions of the authors and not necessarily of The Advertiser.

By Linda Nidiffer

Some of you may still be celebrating Christmas, but I am already pondering the New Year.  First of all, I have never understood the need to celebrate the passing of the old year and the beginning of the new. I can maybe understand celebrating the closure of one decade and the beginning of the next and I have to admit the hoopla of the turning of one century into the next was certainly thought provoking.  It was especially entertaining because of the arguments of when did the new century really begin at the beginning of 2000 or at the end of 2000.  Do you remember all of the hysterics about how all of the computers were going to crash at the stroke of midnight?  I was the only one awake in the house to see if the world was going to grind to a screeching halt. Now that would have been interesting!

I have a problem with time speeding up and slowing down at odd times.  As we get older time seems to just race along.  I have just now figured out how to write 2021 and in a few days I will be expected to write down 2022!  I may not be capable of doing that until June.  Why was it when I was ready to get my driver’s license I thought that the day would never come?  You are planning your wedding and it seems that day just is never in reach and then on the actual day it goes by in a flash?  I don’t care who you are, nine months of pregnancy feels like two years.  Time is a mystery I will never be able to solve.

I am looking forward to a few events in the coming year.  My Penn State grandson will be graduating this May.  Now how did that happen?  I can vividly remember just yesterday when I read to his kindergarten classes weekly the Sweet Pickles books.  This is so wrong.  The older grandson in Berlin will be one year closer to earning his Phd in microbiology.  I only hope my passport doesn’t expire before he graduates because I plan to be there to witness that too.

I mentioned in an earlier column that I was having an issue with a kidney stone and this too shall pass.  Well, I lied.  I have carried this little stone for four months and as I reported to my doctor after having consumed tankers full of liquids I am thinking of baby names for this stupid stone.  I am going to call it Prunella and paint the “nursery” a nice raisin color.  My doctor shares my sense of humor but put me on meds anyway and if the meds don’t work, I see a procedure with an urologist in the New Year.  Isn’t that something to inspire you?

Here is my New Year’s resolution that I have had for multiple years because it is the only one I can keep: the only behaving that I will do is misbehaving.  Happy New Year everybody.  Stay Safe!