Happy New Year everyone. I hope that everyone who partied with friends and family to ring in the new year are well on the way to recover from their hangovers. It was the usual quiet, low-key affair around the Milner household. Mom was in bed by 10 p.m. and I was just hanging around, playing NASCAR Heat 5 and contemplating the ways of the world, just long enough to see that 2025 was in the rearview and that 2026 did, in fact, arrive.
As most of you know, I am hoping to start a new chapter in my life in 2026 and figured that with a new year must come some changes. There are those who would argue that January 1st is just an arbitrary date on a calendar and we shouldn’t hang our hopes of affecting real change within our lives on such things. I would agree with that, but if changing the calendar is what you need to spur you into change, then so be it.
I won’t go into all my own New Year’s Resolutions. I will say that there are a number of things I want to change about myself. I was telling someone recently that I don’t really feel like I have been the best version of myself and that’s something I’d like to change. At the same time, I feel like the opportunity I am looking for it out there, but it is up to be to go get it. To that end, I have spent most of the last week going through my “To Do” list and getting things in order. As my Mom and my “Yoah! Good Buddy” Jason will attest, I’m never satisfied with my progress on my To Do list. Things I figure will take a half hour sometimes take an hour and a half. I have a list of 20 things I want to get done in a day and I end up getting 12…and realizing I should add five or six more things to the list. However, while I’m still not where I want to be, I can honestly say I’ve made some progress on getting myself ready to chase that next opportunity. I used to say “My hope is…” but now I will say “My goal is….” My goal is to have everything finished up so that on Monday morning (January 5), I can hit the ground running.
One of my other goals is to continue to create content for JohnMilner.ca and it’s affiliated sites, especially John Milner’s Track Talk and the Milner Mat Report. I’m also going to finally get off my butt and send one of my novels (possibly two) off to publishers this month.
Meanwhile, I hope that everyone is doing as well as can be expected with the winter weather we are having. I know there are probably a lot of experts out there who will come up with theories about why we’re seeing so much snow and ice and freezing temperatures. With all due respect, here’s my theory. It’s Canada. It’s winter. Do the math!
On a lighter note: Against my better judgement, I was scrolling around the mess that is social media the other day and I saw a post about how the #1 song on your 10th birthday will be an indication of what 2026 will be like for you. Well, I checked it out and the #1 song on July 25, 1979 was “My Sharona” by the Knack. At first, I was like “What the heck?” and then I read a bit about the back story on the song. Apparently, Doug Fieger, the band’s lead singer, fell in love with a young woman named Sharona Alperin. The problem was that he was 25, she was 17 and had a boyfriend. I was like “Aw crap!!!!” (If it means anything, Fieger’s pursuit of “My Sharona” culminated in a four-year relationship.)
Anyways, if anyone out there is actually reading this, do me a favour and let me know what song was the #1 hit when you turned 10, and what you think that means for you in 2026 on Facebook Messenger – either by text or voice message – or via email.
Wondering where all the other blog entries went? Read my previous blog posts here.
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