Welcome to a new year!

I hope that everyone had a great and safe Holiday season and that you didn’t gain so much weight that your pre-Season pants now look like sausage casing around a stuffed pork chop (like what happened to me!)

Now most of us made some type of New Year’s resolution: loose weight, stop smoking, exercise more (or start doing it), etc and hope to follow through with it if we haven’t given up just yet. But do we know how this tradition began?

Let take a little trip back in time to pre-Christian times. Although it started off with the Babylonians, it was moved to January by the Romans in celebration of the god Janus (a two-faced god that looks back to the past year and forward into the new one). Janus was also the patron and protector of arches (Ianus in Latin), gates, doors, doorways, endings and beginnings as well as bridges.

The custom of setting New Year’s resolution during this time in which people would make a resolution to treat each other better (I wonder if this was inside or outside the gladiator arena??)  As the Roman Empire took Christianity as their official religion in the 4^th century, these moral intentions were replaced with prayer. The Christians chose to celebrate the Feast of the Circumcision on January 1^st instead of the revelry that was taking place by those that did not believe in the faith.

As the 17^th century rolled around, Puritans chose not to celebrate holidays and even went as far as calling January “the first month” in order to not name the pagan god Janus. The Puritans urged their children to avoid the revelry and instead spend their time thinking about the past year and making commitments for the new one.  It was the great American theologian Jonathan Edwards that adopted the old culture of writing resolutions and took it to an art form (Edwards had been brought up in the New England Puritan culture).

Edwards’ first set of 70 written resolutions took him 2 years to write and reviewed them every day (I can’t keep up with one, never mind 70!) Now we have all been educated J

Here at Dydrostorm are looking at making some great changes this year.

First off, we are working on a new layout for the website. We want it to be easier for you to find the products that you are looking for.

Second, we are doing monthly drawings on the 1^st of the month for a $25 e-gift card. Our first winner was Curt (curt@tx######.net) Congratulations Curt!! There are no limits on how many times you can win (Your name will go right back into the drawing for the next drawing as well). The only ones that are excluded from winning are those of us here and our families. All you have to do is make sure that you register with us/sign up for the newsletter so tell your friends and family to sign up!

Third, as you may have noticed, we are now offering Duty Gear Packages for Corrections, Security, Police and Military. These are some of the best prices around (I haven’t seen it better anywhere else…and I’VE LOOKED!)

Fourth and last, we have entered into communications/negotiations with the manufacturer of Bianchi, Safariland and Uncle Mike’s in order to have our own duty gear made. If you’ve been in this line of work long enough, or just a little, I don’t need to tell you the quality of their gear. That’s why I chose them. However, and needless to say, it’s going to take some funding. What we are going to be doing is looking for people, either in these lines of work or have family members in them and ask for a $75 donation.

Now, it’s not just you making a donation. I don’t believe in something for nothing. Therefore, for the $75 donation, I will send you a complete Duty Gear package that contains Kevlar Tactical Gloves, Duty Belt with belt keepers, Molded Handcuff Case, Molded OC Case (MK3 or 4, your choice), Latex Glove Pouch , Silent Key Holder, Small Flashlight Holder (will fit the Mini Mag), and a Universal Radio Holder. The retail price for this Duty Gear Package will be $175-$200 so think about the great deal you will be getting as well as being one of the first people to own one!

You can visit us and look at the Corrections / Security Ultra Deluxe Duty Gear Package for a visual representation. I will be sending out another email out soon with the pictures of the actual items as well as information on how and where to make the donation.

We hope that you have a great day, week, month and year. If you have any questions or just want to send us your comments, email me at dydrostormsales@gmail.com