Dear Friends,

Happy New Year! New Year’s weekend was so mild here in Vermont that Prickly Mountain Road and our notorious “Cold Road” were turned to mud. This was a thick, gooey mud that reminded me of the “gumbo coolie” of the midwest. I cringed as I gunned my car and drove through it; slow but steady is the rule, but this was full throttle just to avoid getting stuck.

Of course, that meant that my car got pretty dirty and as I drove to Burlington the next day, it was shaking horribly. I stopped at an automatic carwash, but that just made it worse, so I washed it again with the manual pressure hose. That didn’t do the trick either, so last night I had to take the wheels off one by one and remove mud, rocks and gradoo.

Flying in and out of Vermont is always an adventure this time of the year. If you have the first flight of the day leaving or the last flight coming in, you may find yourself stranded in some airport like Detroit, New York, Philadelphia or Chicago. I do remember the days when the Burlington airport only had one airline and if you were leaving town, you could park in front of the airport and leave your car there for a week.

I am out in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show where we have a booth for our Chill Pill Audio and Hammerhead products. I also have a lot of meetings scheduled with vendors and customers and will be walking the floor looking for new products and marveling at the new technology. Next week, I’ll have a report from the show.

Apple dominates CES even without being there officially. As you walk around to see the exhibits, there is an abundance of products that are either designed to complement Apple products or are blatant copies of Apple products. It is a huge show, though, and I relish the opportunity to check out all of the new stuff!