I have no complaints about 2018, or any other year really.
I will say though, I start my new year off by getting on a plane tomorrow morning to begin my 8-hr trip back to the most incredible Lady in the world, and one whom I’ve missed very much for the past week!
“Walk through this world with me...[Ms Lady, mam]”
Tramp
@VA, you truly bring new meaning to the phrase, "it could be worse." lol
~Scamp
(part 2)
1918 - The First World War did not end gently. The final year of the war saw a spasm of offensives and counter-offensives that added millions to the final death toll. Even the signing of the Nov. 11 armistice could not bring peace to a world where the Russian Civil War, among others, were already well underway. At the same time, a deadly influenza incubated on the Western Front would spread to virtually all corners of the known world, killing about as many as the then-population of the United States.
1960 - So far as most people knew, it wasn’t all that bad. But in China, deftly shielded from the world’s media, the country was suffering from the worst single disaster in history. Mao Zedong had forced his people to carry out a series of wildly impractical schemes designed to launch them into the modern age. Instead, they utterly shattered the country’s ability to produce food. An estimated 45 million Chinese were killed, and everyone else was forced to lie, steal or make unspeakable decisions to stay alive.
1241 - 750 years ago Khan and his successors engineered the brutal killing of so many people that it had a measurable impact on the world’s climate as thousands of farms transformed back into wilderness. When Khan lost a grandson in the Bamiyan Valley of modern-day Afghanistan, he ordered every living thing in the region killed. Khan died in 1227, but 1241 was when the Mongols began their most earnest drive into Eastern Europe, massacring or enslaving everyone in their path. Roughly half of Hungary would not survive.
72,000 years ago - An unknown year 72,000 years ago claims the title. Toba, a Sumatran supervolcano, shrouded the earth in a thick haze that dropped global temperatures by as much as 20 degrees. Just as with the asteroid-initiated dust clouds that killed the dinosaurs, many species would not survive this particularly brutal post-Toba planet. Humans were thought to have been reduced to as little as 40 breeding pairs — well within range of being critically endangered. For context, there are currently 1,800 giant pandas living in the wild.
So looking back on 2018, some people didn't have a good time. A great article puts things in perspective. I tried to edit it to one post but it looks like it'll have to be 2.
Suck it up, everybody: Here are nine years infinitely worse than 2018 - You may be broke and miffed by Trump, but at least your entire civilization isn’t crumbling around you
1347 - The Black Death killed roughly one fifth of the world population, and up to sixty per cent of everyone in Europe. Panicked citizens who blamed the Jews for the plague would even launch a miniature Holocaust, razing thousands of European Jewish communities. The carnage of the Black Death was so overwhelming that, like many on this list, the people of 1347 feared that future generations (should they exist) would never believe that the plague had actually happened.
1942 - At the beginning of 1942, most of the Holocaust’s six million victims were still alive. By year’s end, death camps were opened across Europe and millions lay in mass graves, executed by genocidal death squads following the Wehrmacht’s advance into the Soviet Union. In a merciless response to the first U.S. air raid against Tokyo, Imperial Japan massacred whole villages in coastal China, killing 250,000 Chinese by year’s end. And the year would end in the freezing chaos of the battle of Stalingrad, the largest confrontation in the history of warfare.
1520 - European contact had not been good for the Indigenous people of the Americas. But 1520 was when European contact would truly begin to wipe whole peoples from the map. Smallpox took hold for its major New World outbreak in 1520, unleashing the epidemiological equivalent of nuclear war on the Western Hemisphere. At the beginning of 1520, the population of current-day Mexico was about 20 million. By year’s end, up to eight million were dead or dying.
536 - This is the year that Harvard historian Michael McCormick has definitively pegged as the “worst year to be alive.” A volcanic eruption forced the entire world under ashen skies, kicking off the coldest decade in more than two millennia. The sun was so obscured by pollution it was possible to stare directly at it. Then, only five years later, the Plague of Justinian killed up to one quarter of whoever was left. Grinding poverty was already the norm in 536, but that year saw much of humanity descend into a generation or two of particularly acute misery.
1816 - The Year Without a Summer. China was racked by starvation after losing much of its rice crop. Heavy rains in India incubated a devastating cholera epidemic. Europe suffered its last widespread famine, and oat shortages killed so many horses that a German baron was compelled to invent the bicycle. The culprit for all this was the eruption of the Indonesian volcano Tambora, which enshrouded the planet in a thin layer of sun-blocking ash.
Twas a very happy Christmas with family, saddened by having to put down our Precious Padme' on Christmas Eve, ironically we had rescued her on Christmas Eve four years ago. After three weeks of back and forth to the vet, trying various meds and care, it became evident that she was suffering and would have no quality of life going forward. Tramp and I held her and loved on her as she romped freely over that rainbow bridge. My only regret is we did not have enough time with her, as she and others before her have brought so much joy into our lives and home. Lincoln Solo, our rescue from this summer, has been very sad and did not eat anything until yesterday. Life goes on and we are very thankful that these precious creatures have passed through ours. Wishing all a very happy 2019 and looking forward to seeing some of our specials...you know who you are.
~lady~
It's always been interesting to me how 'we' tend to take stock of the year passing as it is ending. I think looking back at events of the year it is already clouded by memory and perception. Like every other year this one had its highs and lows, but for me it was nothing monumental in either direction; fun times, sad times, family issues, relationship issues, and so on.
But, here we are poised on the advent of another 'year', looking forward to better things, happier times, more peace within ourselves and our environs. What's past is gone and done, for me, it's more important to look ahead, not through some rose colored glasses, but with a confidence that whatever is thrown at us we will rise to, handle and get beyond it. Because that is what we do year after year, and to my eyes, it is the best of us.
I've strived to realize the happy moments as they are happening, cherish them, roll them around my tongue and taste the sweetness as it is happening. Bitter, sad moments, once past, I spit out like sour milk and move on the best I can. What else can we do? We all have adversities and I believe it is a testament to each and every one of us that we are poised on the edge of looking back and moving forward. Take the step .........
Wishing all a Happy Holiday, a fulfilling New Year.
2018 was a year of change for us.
The year started off on a high, dropped down to a low with the loss of our Yorkie Julio. Progressed into some stress creating loops of a move, add in Mrs F’s surgery and Summer was one sleepless season. We have adjusted into our neighborhood, Mrs F into a new promotion and her rapidly changing body. I had my own work related challenges, but in the end with the support of the family, friends and co-workers I managed to hold it together.
2018 is closing out a bit stressful, but I may have weathered it. 2019 promises to be its own ride, but after this year I learned that sometime you have to lean on others for your own strength. No man is an island, we are all part of sa greater world and community..
We would like to wish this ‘crazy’ community all the best in the coming year.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Prosperous New Year to you all.
The Fokkers...
