The New Year. Filled with promise and potential, for good or ill. It’s an odd turn of phrase, isn’t it? A “new” year?

Is it really so new to commemorate an astronomical reality that this planet has taken another lap around the sun?

In fact, Earth has swirled around our star for so long, we really don’t know how many laps have really been taken.

What’s new is actually kind of old hat.

But celebrate we do, and why not? It’s a good chance to kiss the past 12 months goodbye and hope, just a little, that whatever comes will be better than what is past. Ah, the triumph of hope over experience.

At the ol’ ADOT Ranch, we know some things to be hopeful and others are certain. People will still need to get from point A to point B, and if that happens to be on an ADOT-maintained roadway, we are not hopeful but instead we’re certain we’ll do everything to get you “Safely Home.”

“Safely Home” is our “True North,” by the way.

We are certain that at some point, maybe even as you’re reading this, the effects of nature will cause problems. Whether it’s snow, rain, dust or a wayward heifer, our dedicated employees who are on the job 24/7 every day of the year, will do their best to get those problems solved safely and efficiently.

Here is where certainty requires a bit of hope: We hope, with all the hope we can muster, that every driver will do his or her best to drive safely and responsibly. Don’t drive distracted. Don’t drive if the road conditions are dangerous, and never, ever drive impaired by alcohol or other substances. We are certain that it’s far better that you get “Safely Home” than any alternative.

So here’s to hope. Hope enriches, encourages and even emboldens us to press on each day as the road takes us to new destinations, new adventures and new people to help us experience them.

Perhaps that’s it. Hope makes things new.

So … Happy New Year.