Today is New Year's Eve, 2022. It is already 2023 is places like Sydney and Tokyo. Here in the newsroom, the staff (including the elves) have been spending too much time trying to figure out the best way to sum up the old year and look forward to the new one. We've thought about listing 2022's blunders and lost opportunities that beset our community , such as:

• the City of Sacramento habitually using us as the place to solve its homeless shelter problems, or
• the lame duck San Juan School Board imposing its will to put a big middle school on a marginal old elementary school site, despite valid community concerns, or
• the County turning its back on our key intersections by looking to fast food chicken sandwich restaurants or alcohol sales at cheap-o discount stores as drivers of economic development.

Still, we don't like being Debbie Downer, however justified it might be. We've also considered stating our optimism for 2023 now that redistricting has given us one less member of Congress to ignore us and the new state Legislature has gained a lot of rookie members whose election campaigns hinted at a supportive understanding of the plight of unincorporated areas. Yet those things can't really be counted on, can they?

So instead, we've opted to present a lovely version of Old Lang Syne, sung by the Choral Scholars of University College Dublin. The title translates as ‘old long since’, or ‘for the sake of old times’ - meaning looking back as a way to look forward. many of us will sing this song tonight with friends and family to welcome in the new year. We hope you all will have a pleasant and prosperous 2023!