Dear Friends and Family and 2016,
Best wishes to all.
2016, I must tell you that you were a hectic year, crazy in many ways, with wins and losses, some that cut us deeply, and some that inspired us. You were in all ways unexpected. I must introduce myself. I am no one special, just one among the billions of your survivors. I am not an elected spokesperson. I am just a man with something to say to you. Thanks for the good and the bad; thanks for the memories. You gave us Trump, not my first choice but he is our president now, and we have to support him.
2016, I am sad to confess that in the past three hundred and sixty five days, I did not finish all my work. Not your fault. The wheels of justice roll at their own pace. Three airline cases this year and some older cases too, are unfinished, so they must be part of my baggage moving on, along with everything I learned and loved in 2016. Of course I will look back and try to make sense of you, but I am not writing today to look back. I’m not going to be caught on January 1st facing backward. I am saying goodbye to you, and opening the door to an amazing future. Onward and upward.
Sometimes the passage of time is a little unbelievable. I’ve been writing books set a couple of years back in time, little fictional landscapes in history, mostly in Los Angeles. I began Mario 4, and expect to finish in 2017. It’s a great thing to be able to do, to revisit a familiar time, and play around with it, then to come out of the writing coma, to find myself quite unbelievably on the cusp of 2017, coming up for air with a piece of the mid-sixties like this one to take into next year: “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” I have decided that this will be the watchword of my 2017.
2016, as years go, you were exceptional, but it is time to lay you to rest. I will not mourn you, but fill my arms and heart with you to carry on all of your good into the rollercoaster of next year. If my wishes for the future come true, 2017 will be filled to bursting with life and love for everyone, dreams and goals to work toward, and all shadows banished. Every year finds its way.
Good night 2016. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
To my family and friends, colleagues and cohorts, strangers and future friends, may the dream of a better day become reality, and 2017 be the best year we have ever had.
Good morning 2017.
George Hatcher
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Austrian Airlines Flight OS-65 made an emergency landing at Shannon Airport, Ireland, on January 14th.
SkyWest Airlines flight OO-4751 had to return and make an emergency landing in Grand Forks, North Dakota, on August 18th.