Happy New Year!

WOW! 2009 was a year to remember - or forget - depending upon your viewpoint. But regardless, 2009 will be a year that we will likely remember in detail for some time to come.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continued to worry us all and cost the country some of our finest young men and women as they did their duty protecting our dreams of freedom for all.

2009 seems to have been "the year of the Ponzi scheme." We had Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford who seem to have cost people billions through their phony investment firms. There was the Galleon hedge fund insider trading scandal and the UBS $780 million tax fraud settlement. Then there was the economy stupid!

From boom and excess to the extremes of recession we saw the stock market tank, but then do a miraculous recovery; and we watched in horror as the housing market went from boom to foreclosures by the thousands. Although the worst of the financial crisis seems to be over…a full recovery is still something to be found in the future.

Along the way in 2009 we lost friends, loved ones and a number of those we admired or who were at least headline grabbers in the news for many years: Farah Fawcett, Teddy Kennedy, Ed McMahon, Michael Jackson; Patrick Sawyze; Kirk Douglas; Walter Cronkite…and the list goes on and on. Too many to remember, even if the feeling of loss would allow us the memory to do so.

During 2009 we WERE able to celebrate, even if there seemed at times to be little to be thankful for. There is always something that makes us realize that not all is gloom and doom. Be it the healthy recovery of a friend or loved one after an experience with serious illness; the birth of a new member or our extended family; finding a long lost friend whom we thought lost forever, or just enjoying again the ability to spend a peaceful evening watching the rising of the full moon. The biggest boosts were often those given to us by the littlest people we know: our children, our grandchildren or those of our friends and family. These little people can often bring us back to the realization that our crazy and confused world is NOT all there is to living - it just complicates living to some extent for the adults.

As we move on to another New Year, the Freedom Automotive family extends to you our thanks for your business and/or friendship in the past year. You are appreciated as a customer, a friend, a family member, or just because you are you! We wish you the very best in the coming year with sincere hopes that 2010 will bring us all more health, happiness and prosperity than we could ever expect.

Always treat your family better than your friends and love your family better than your friends. Don't be such a good friend that you have no time left for your family. Make your relationships at home work first.

Remember the old Chinese proverb: "Everything in the past died yesterday, and everything in the future is born today."

The Freedom Automotive Gang
John, Janice, Jim, Kathy & Bill