Good Morning.

Just stealing a little of Vel's thunder this morning. I'm sure she won't mind.

Four years ago on this very day, We were on the National Mall with about 2 million of our closest friends. It was an amazing day, and you could probably look back for our accounts of it, lo those many years ago.

Not quite a month after the inauguration, I was laid off, and that precipitated a now four-year odyssey through many jobs, contracts, unemployment, and underemployment.

I also blogged a while back about how I was NOT better off than I was four years ago. But better than 3 years ago? 2 years ago? Last year? Well, HELL YA!

And so here we are again. President Obama will be sworn in at noon today, just like always, but in a private ceremony. Tomorrow he'll do it again in the big public ceremony. I'm sure the crowd won't be quite as big, but here's hoping that it's just as happy and civilized as last time. (Incredibly, nobody was arrested for anything four years ago.)

This year....with a not so new job under my belt (One year on Feb 8), full-bore medical insurance, and now cancer in remission.....there is a distinct possibility that that Hope and Change promised us a few years back might personally come to pass.

(And just imagine if the GOP was more interested in the United States than in maintaining their power....remember, they call US fascists, but everything they do is leading us down that path now, isn't it?)