<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">On Fri, Jan 2, 2026 at 3:29 PM <<a href="mailto:spike@rainier66.com">spike@rainier66.com</a>> wrote:</span></div></div><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr"><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class="msg-5258248450220969305"><div lang="EN-US" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div class="m_-5258248450220969305WordSection1"><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16pt"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-weight:bold"> </font><i style=""><font face="georgia, serif"><span class="gmail_default" style="">> </span>we need an objective way to determine who wins.<span class="gmail_default" style=""> </span><span class="gmail_default" style="">Ideas</span></font></i></span><span style="font-size:16pt"><i style=""><font face="georgia, serif"><span class="gmail_default" style=""></span> anyone?</font></i></span></p></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><font size="4" face="tahoma, sans-serif"><b>Yes, on January 1, 203<span class="gmail_default">1</span><span class="gmail_default"> we ask everybody on the list (provided anybody is still around) if they think my prediction that 2025 was the last normal year turned out to be a good one. </span></b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="tahoma, sans-serif"><b><span class="gmail_default"><br></span></b></font></div><div><b style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:large"><span class="gmail_default">John K Clark</span></b> </div><div><br></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class="msg-5258248450220969305"><div lang="EN-US" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div class="m_-5258248450220969305WordSection1"><div><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u></p></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div>