Finally, it’s a new year of great expectations!

This New Year was spent with family watching Ohio State thump NCAA’s No. 2 Clemson in a 49-28 semi-final and Alabama’s Crimson Tide took care of Notre Dame in lop-sided matchup by a score of 31-14.

It was great to watch the New Year’s Day college football games of 2021 without a thought of 2020.

There was no skin in either game, but it was acceptable for a BIG 10 team to defeat Clemson. With Ohio State representing all of BIG 10 football, there is a chance that Alabama would fall to the power passing attack of Justin Fields and his plethora of capable receivers.

Think about the whole of last year: a Chinese virus shut down the world’s largest economy, crushed some lesser nations and forced millions out of work.

Now that it’s a new year, and we can look back without poking a bear.

Does anyone else find it odd that WalMart, Target, Menards, Lowe’s, Home Depot and most mega stores didn’t skip a beat? In fact, 2020 set records for many of these big box operations. So mom and pop businesses were labeled as non-essential. No one has stepped forward to acknowledge that they established what is essential and non-essential. Must have been some lobbyists in DC who were pummeling members of Congress to come up with a definition that aided their cause and debilitated their lesser competitors.

Another behemoth, Amazon, set record sales during the worst time since the Great Depression. Analysts had expected Amazon to earn $92.7 billion in revenue and report earnings per share of $7.41. The retail giant thus easily beat on both. ... Amazon gave fourth quarter revenue guidance in the range of $112.0 billion and $121.0 billion, compared to a consensus of $112.3 billion from analysts.

 (How does that sit with those laid off from their jobs? The rich got richer and the poor were laid off.)

Churches around the country were forced to go remote, use social media to conduct services or just close their doors until the virus was eradicated or everyone received a vaccine.

Baseball, football and hockey venues drew cardboard fans with piped in recorded crowd sounds. High schools in Minnesota were given the go ahead with winter sports. (Most winter sports began practice last Monday.)

However, wrestlers, basketball players may have to wear facemasks during play. (I can only imagine a KM or Byron wrestler gasping for air when his opponent is trying to pin him.)

Things may return to normal this year.

After last year, normal may be redefined. Webster’s defines normal as: “conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern; characterized by that which is considered usual, typical, or routine.”

NORMAL

During my three days' stay in the town, I woke up every morning with the impression that I was a boy--for in my dreams the faces were all young again, and looked as they had looked in the old times--but I went to bed a hundred years old, every night--for meantime I had been seeing those faces as they are now.

Mark Twain