January 20, 2025

I have no desire to make my writing about politics since I get enough of that rammed down my throat in the daily news, but I want to put this here for my own reference to be able to easily look back on over the coming four years. I saw this on a Bluesky post, so here is where we stand today, January 20, 2025.

Unemployment 4.1%, Gas $3.12 a gallon, but here it is $2.68 a gallon, S&P 500 5,996.56, Inflation rate 2.9%, and Dow Jones 43,487.83

Just a few indicators of where the US economy stands right now. I’m intrigued by what it will be next year at this time, 2 years down the road, 3, 4? We’ll just have to wait and see.

A few more things going on in my life, I’ve been cutting alcohol out of my life over the past month and plan to continue to do so. America is experiencing a surge in people who are cutting back on alcohol and the trend toward being “sober curious” is gaining. Some of this is a result of recent studies that show that no amount of alcohol is considered healthy and part of it is people wanting to save money – alcohol can get expensive. More power to us all!

Tomorrow, Tuesday, I start my first foray into teaching as an Assistant Instructor at Columbia University. I’ll be helping out on a class that I took when I did the Master’s Degree in Non-Profit Management. I viewed the videos of our students and they look like a great group.

I flew back to Colorado yesterday and we were on a little plane so I had a window seat – only one seat on that side. I looked out the window and this mountain seemed awfully close. Shortly after I took this picture, the pilot turned the plane away from this monster!

I love the Denver airport. It’s so iconic. I first visited it when it originally opened in 1995. I was transiting through on a trip back to the US when I worked for All Nippon Airways. To the right of the airport is a Marriott hotel. I regularly check the price and it’s always over $400. I’d love to stay there but I can’t see dropping almost half a grand on an airport hotel.

Hard to believe we are in 2025, and, in fact, I had to go back in this very post and correct 2024 to 2025 because I guess my brain is still in 2024 – time to move out of last year and embrace the coming year!