Christmas wasn’t really that long ago but it sure feels like it. At least to me it does. I looked up at the calendar on my office wall just now and noticed we’ve moved past Martin Luther King Jr. Day, New Year’s, and Christmas. Funny how that happened. I barely noticed.

What I did notice were some minor things that I’ve accomplished since Christmas. A couple of weeks ago, the temperatures dipped into the teens and the cold wind froze the water in our pipes under the house. At the time I discovered it, it was too early to tell if the pipes had burst. As I put on the old, thick coveralls and prepared to crawl underneath our home I certainly hoped the damage was minimal.

It turns out they were only stopped up with ice. It took several hours and a half-day off from work but with the help of a blowtorch, I managed to thaw out the frozen pipes. So far this year, that’s probably my biggest accomplishment to date.

It’s almost a shame too because millions of people have raised billions of dollars to help thousands of people in Haiti. That’s quite an accomplishment. The earthquake there turned every one’s attention to a country that already had major problems before the event. My co-anchor visited Haiti once around two years ago to help her dad, who is a doctor. He volunteers there and she went along for a few days once. She saw first-hand how the people in that country lived before and her stories weren’t promising then. She doesn’t talk much about the trip, but I know she had a good time giving aid to those who needed it. I remember she returned bearing gifts. I received a nice bottle of rum.

That bottle sits on a shelf in my workshop, not far from the blowtorch I used a few weeks ago. Both haven’t really been used to their full potential since I acquired them.

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