[caption id="attachment_401" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Huge Lines at Winterfest"] [/caption] My sincere apologies to both my avid readers for not posting anything for the past month. There are many reasons why: extreme laziness, and not much happening in the Funnel Cake world are near the top of the list. Another reason is my heartfelt position as one of the ultimate Bah Humbug guys in the world. I just don't care for the holidays, all of the shopping in horrible crowds, decorations on everything. It's an emotional drain and I'd like to move it all to July. Maybe I'd get more in the spirit of things then. Actually, there are a couple of valid reasons beyond my being a curmudgeon. I get pulled from a bunch of directions needing to be at the farm, at Peggy's, doing Christmas with mom at the nursing home. Goodness knows, I'd love to make a Kentucky trip to see Grant, Katie, Nancy and that other fat boy in the Falls clan during the holidays. But, I end up running up and down the road just trying to keep everybody happy. [caption id="attachment_404" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Kagen: A Rock Start in the Making"] [/caption] My other problem is caused by my horrible lack of financial planning. Because December is my worst month of the year, I never have enough money to do the holidays like I'd prefer. July would be a much better month for me and maybe with more money at my disposal, I could be more like my sister: a Christmas nut. Basketball at Liberty has been horrible so far and I'm barely covering my expenses. Winterfest was OK but nothing like it was three years ago when we rocked. Today, I put 2009 to bed. Well, except for tax time. And, it's been a pretty good year. During a year where the economy has been awful to say the least, my business was up by over 25%. Most of that was from  the races at Richmond and Martinsville, and my very successful season with the Potomac Nationals.  Football was down slightly due mainly to neither Liberty nor JMU making the playoffs and the additional games. The regular season games did well and some new records were set. Big Red also ventured out of state for the first time doing shows in Maryland and Kentucky. Balance that with the loss of my Walmart fund raisers and Belvedere Plantation the whole month of October due to them doing concessions themselves, I certainly can't complain.  [caption id="attachment_405" align="alignleft" width="128" caption="Brat the Cat: "What are You Fools Doing?""] [/caption] 2010 looks like another year of increases. While it's not definite yet, we're probably adding at least two new tracks for races. Big Red's national tour is still in the final planning stages. At this point, all I know for sure is it will end in Austin, TX for the huge SXSW Conferences. Not sure where I'll be going or what I'll be doing before we get there, but that announcement should be forthcoming by mid-January. Our contract with the Nationals has been renewed for the year and we still have a bunch of dates for shows at Richmond Raceway. There are also proposals on the table for another region of Americrown (which could add even more races) and for several larger arenas. I hope to hear from them this week. Perhaps the biggest change in all of this is losing Peggy. She's been my right arm thru these past six years going back to the days of selling funnel cakes as a little parttime venture for my retirement so we could take a cruise every year. Her son Todd heads for basic training in the Army on January 11, and Peggy will take over fulltime care of Kagen while he's gone. Now that the holidays are over, I'm getting excited about my outlook for the year and there should be much news forthcoming. To all of you, my best for the New Year.