I’m not a psychic, nor do I play one on TV. But this is the time when people predict what might be coming up in the next year, and I don’t want the UP to be left out. So here are a couple of predictions of what could happen here in 2024.
For all of our sakes, let’s hope most of them don’t come true.
First of all, I predict that we’ll continue to have a lack of heavy snow, forcing us to adapt our big winter events to a new reality.
What does that mean? Well, that means we’ll have to hold the Noquemanon on roller skis, the ski jumps in a bouncy house, and the Trenary Outhouse Races on canoes in the middle of the Escanaba River.
Oh, and despite the lack of major snow right now, I also predict we’ll get 22 inches on May 1.
Again.
I also predict that UP brewers will continue their trend of naming their products after local towns, meaning we’ll get new beers with cute names like Rock On! or Painesdale Pale Ale.
I’m also going out on a limb and predicting a certain amount of chaos in Dickinson County, especially after Iron Mountain gets downgraded to a mesa, Norway receives a buyout offer from Sweden, and the citizens of Vulcan start arresting people when one too many visitors walk down Main Street and go, “Live long and prosper.”
And finally, I’m going to predict that sometime in the next twelve months a family in Upper Michigan will suffer through an unspeakable tragedy, but will find comfort in the fact that their friends, neighbors, and people they’ve never met will pitch in to help them deal with their pain and lend a hand as they start to rebuild their lives.
Actually, that’s the one prediction I’m pretty sure will come true, because that’s what we do here. And we should all be thankful for that.
As to whatever else the next twelve months has in store for the UP… between you & me, I have no idea. Because recently, just when we think the wackiness of a year can’t be topped, the next one comes in and says… “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
I’m Jim Koski, and that’s another slice of “Life in the 906.”
