2015 PREDICTIONS

          Well, we’re about a week, or so, past Elvis’s birthday so it’s got to be the middle of January already. That’s great, isn’t it? That half of the nastiest winter month has passed--not that you missed Elvis’s birthday…or maybe you didn’t…oh, never mind…

Now, where was I? I don’t mean to wish my life away but knowing that we’re that much closer to warmer weather will put a smile on my face and raise my tolerance level for these frigid temperatures a bit.

As 2014 fades in our memories it’s time to pull out the old crystal ball or the pig spleen or the bowl of water, (ala Nostradamus), or a future predicting instrument of your choice, and predict, some say guess, at what may transpire in 2015.

We know that there will be all of the usual predictions of continued global strife, a pandemic or two, global economic uncertainty, (like there’s ever been certainty!), a political scandal, or two, or three, or four…some natural disasters and, of course, the odd good news story will emerge as well.

Saying that there will be unrest in the Middle East or that Putin will continue to flex his muscles or North Korea will alienate itself further from the rest of humanity is pretty much a given so there’s no point in wasting some crystal ball magic on that kind of stuff.

Predicting who will win the Stanley Cup and be right doing it…now there’s some top-notch prognosticating. I’d do that for you, you know, but I think we all know who’s going to win the Cup this year. Yup, that’s right.

What I will do for you is tell you who WON’T win the Cup this year, and it breaks my heart to say it, but a guy’s got to face facts, and…here it is…you heard it here first…the Toronto Maple Leafs will not be carrying the Stanley Cup around after the last NHL playoff game is played in June or July or something. There!...I’ve said it. 48 years and counting.

I’m sorry, you’re right, that’s an easy one, too. More predictable than Israeli/Palestine relations continuing to be strained.

Back to the Leafs. You know that that wasn’t really a prediction anyway, it was just my sad attempt at reverse jinxation. I’m crossing my fingers that I am completely wrong on that one.

I’m hoping that the Doomsayers are wrong also. Their last prediction was that the End of the World was going to happen on December 21^st, 2012 and when it didn’t occur they said that it was merely postponed. Yes, postponed. Apparently, the Mayans miscalculated something in the calendar and Doomsday’s been postponed. It’s supposed to happen on September 3^rd, 2015 now. Something to do with back-to-back years with three Blood Full Moons in a row, I think…I don’t know, I stopped reading about it, I’m tired of stressing out about nothing.

There’s another sure-fire, dead-on prediction: Stress will remain stressful and we will all continue to get stressed that we are under such stress.

Then again, the sun will shine and spring will arrive and flowers will blossom and it will again be warm and then it might even get hot and another year will unfold with events that we have seen way too often before and other events will unfold that we have never, ever seen. Time will tell.

Oh, yeah, it’s the Montreal Canadiens…wink, wink.

“The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time,”-Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865).