I am welcoming 2009 on the theory that it probably will be an improvement over 2008. I am not a whiner, and I am still about the luckiest S.O.B. I know, but the closing quarter of 2008 was pretty rough, between investment compression, a torn retina, and the abrupt shutdown of my employer of the last 6 1/2 years. The investments will recover, the retina repair seems to have been successful, and I am actually having fun contemplating the opportunity for a career shift.