What a year - people with new jobs, people with new houses, people with remodeled houses, people with improved health, and much more.

I propose to let this thread continue - a while back I took the year out of the title to this end - but one issue that sometimes arises as threads get longer is that they are slow to load on portable devices. If several people have this problem, let me know and I can reconsider. In the meantime, if you open the main Mudcat page and see this thread in the list, if you click on the number to the right of the thread title that will open it chronologically from the beginning but with only 50 posts and links to the rest of the pages. You can click on that last link to get to the current page. OR, you can click on that little blue ^d next to the number and that will open the thread at the most recent post and read in descending order.

I have a few articles that I return to for inspiration, and The Tyranny of the Heirloom from the New York Times is at the top of the list. I love the philosophy espoused in Don Aslett's Clutter's Last Stand (I linked to the author and his many books on cleaning and decluttering).

A friend of mine lives in a small (~1000sf) house that recently needed to be completely emptied in order to take up the warped wood floors and replace the sub floors. Much went into the small 1-car garage, the rest was packed up and moved to storage until the job was complete. My friend now has a new lease on his house - he is setting up each room with just as much furniture and decorating as it needs and is donating the unneeded furnishings and decor. It's difficult to let go under normal circumstances, but taking a fresh look at everything has helped him make the house look roomier and made rooms (like his largest bedroom that serves as his office and art studio) an efficient space, and he will no longer be tripping over possessions in order to get into the room and try to use it.

I continue to move items into my sun room where I list eBay items from. The bench beside the door is stacked with boxes ready to ship. I'd like to use the bench for sitting, but right now it's higher purpose is to help me clear these things from the house and make a little income in the process. The proceeds in my PayPal account pay a couple of bills a month and I use it for things like paying online postage and making donations to charitable organizations. The goal is to not have to transfer bank money into PayPal, but always the opposite.

It feels like we're entering darker times, when charities will be strained because of new tax legislation in the U.S. affecting the deductible nature of donations. Take care of yourselves, and if you have the ability, please continue supporting good organizations if even if you can't deduct the donation.

To close on a positive up note (this is a music site, after all!) you might enjoy this story from Weekend Edition Sunday on National Public Radio. Twitter Wants To Help You Welcome 2018 With One Climactic Musical Moment. It started with Phil Collins recommending the timing of one of his songs so the drums hit right at midnight. What a great idea - the Guy Lombardo "Auld Lang Syne" is as hackneyed as they come. Looks like a good thread topic. . .

Onward into 2018.