The late-night call...

It was late when my phone rang.

“Hello?” I mumbled.

“You up?” the voice asked.

“I am now. What’s up?”

“You’d better get over here.”

“Why?”

“He’s taken a turn for the worse. I don’t think it’ll be long now.”

I struggled with what I should do. Sure, there’d been good times, but there’d also been the bad times. And in thinking things over, I was beginning to believe that the bad outweighed the good.

But could I be so cruel? Could I just let him go, without so much as a ‘fare-thee-well’? This is what I was struggling with, trying somehow to find a reason to make the trip. I sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing my eyes, trying to clear the fog from my brain and decide what to do.

Some things are better left in the past, left to slowly wither away, forgotten in the mist of years. Some things are best kept with us, brought out when needed to cheer us up, or give us hope. It was with this that I struggled – to find reason to keep him around, for just a little while longer.

In the end, I decided to go back to bed. I knew the voice was right – he wasn’t long for the world – and I didn’t care. Because for all the good he brought me, he didn’t do anything spectacular that made it worth the effort to keep him around. In the end, after all the early promise, he disappointed me by the end.

So goodbye, 2005. You started out with so much promise, so much that you didn’t deliver on. And even though you brought some good memories – passing the bar, the White Sox winning the World Series – in the end, you were just a disappointment.

You’re not long for the world – in a few hours, you’ll be gone, replaced by your youngest sibling, 2006. Let’s hope he does a better job than you.

Happy New Year! May the new year fulfill the promises the old year left undone.