Warming up from our deep freeze, gearing up for another year of change and writing up 2017’s first edition of Port Townsend Observation Deck News Around Town.

T-SHIRT SAYING OF THE WEEK: “I’m not worried, just a little panicked.”

HOUSING NEWS: A slower December meant that 2016 was nine sales short of matching the sales mark set from 2015 in Jefferson County, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service report, which primarily deals with Realtor-listed properties. The total of closed sales in 2016, residential and condominium, reached 658, compared to 667 in 2015. There were only 47 closed sales last month, compared to 57 in December 2016. The number of active listings went up (30, up from 20) comparing December to December, and was also up for the year (868/835). The median sales price (half higher, half lower) for 2016 finished at $301,500, compared to $269,000 for 2015. The most sales for the month were in Port Townsend (19) and Port Ludlow (7) and Quilcene (4). For the year, the most sales were in PT (208), Port Ludlow (143), Discovery (49), Tri-Area (44), Shine (42) and Quilcene (41). There were 626 residential sales recorded in 2016, compared to 620 in 2015, and 32 condo unit sales in 2016, compared to 47 in 2015.

MAN’S BEST FRIEND NEWS: “It’s a dog, born confused,” he says of the latest stunt pulled by his wife’s little dog. She responds, “Just like a man.”

LANGUAGE NEWS: One piece of paperwork related to the new year caught my eye. “Discrimination is against the law,” reads an insurance company’s introductory letter stating that the firm “does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex.” To comply with federal law, the message is delivered on two pieces of paper in the following languages, listed in this order: English, Spanish, Chinese traditional, Vietnamese, Korean, Russian, Tagalog, Ukrainian, Mon-Khmer/Cambodian, Japanese, Amharic, Cushite/Oromo, Arabic, Punjabi, German and Laotian.

ADVICE OF THE WEEK: “If you paid your people more, they wouldn’t steal from you,” says a man to a business owner dealing with petty-theft issues with employees as suspects. Replies the business owner, “If you’re a thief, you’re a thief.”

LONGEVITY NEWS: Catching the flu is no laughing matter, especially for someone who is 97 years old. So it is with great joy to learn that George only had a cough, not anything serious, and only spent a short time in the hospital while that fact was ascertained. For a man to live so long and have taken no medication other than an aspirin, that’s a natural wonder. Keep on trucking, George!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “There is no inventory,” says a person with nearly 30 years of real estate experience in Jefferson County, regarding the seller’s market that lacks choices for buyers. “If a property has been sitting [on the market] too long, it is overpriced or it is too unusual, too unique. Otherwise, someone would have already snapped it up.”

(Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader editor Patrick J. Sullivan appreciates the people who noted that they missed News Around Town inventory while he was on vacation for a few weeks.)