In a matter of days, I will have the wish I have wanted for years: the 43rd president of the US, George W. Bush, will saddle up and ride off into the sunset. From retirement at the US$2.1 million house he has bought in Dallas at a bargain-basement price - thanks to a plunge in the property market that I am sure he had nothing to do with - he will work on his designer presidential library and write his memoirs. There is no need to partake of either when they are finished as he has made clear the content during his farewell tour. In essence, he has no regrets and even less remorse for the decisions made during his eight years in the White House.
As one American leader gives way to another, talk traditionally turns to legacies. Mr Bush believes he will be remembered as a liberator of 50 million people in the Middle East. He contends he has done much for the American education system with his 'no child will be left behind' policy. But, first and foremost, he is proud that he will leave Washington with the same set of values that he arrived with; in other words, he did not sell his soul for the sake of politics.
Legacies are a matter of opinion. The US remains deeply divided, politically, despite the feel-good factor of Barack Obama's election win. Mr Bush's Republican Party supporters offer a long list of perceived achievements while detractors from the soon-to-be-in-power Democrats have little good to say about his presidency. History is the final judge, of course - but for now, I prefer to stay firmly with the detractors.
Look at the record: the humiliation and torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib; the illegal incarceration of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay; the mishandling of Hurricane Katrina; the intelligence failure over Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction; and the go-it-alone diplomatic approach that tore to shreds previous international co-operation. He censored science, battered American prestige and spent as if there was no tomorrow.
Given my lack of anything good to say, it is best that I do not even attempt to mark the end of Mr Bush's presidential era with my take on his place in history. There is, however, another person from his administration who, in my humble estimation, has left a sizeable legacy: his wife, Laura.
There are no guidelines as to the role of the first lady. She does as she wishes, taking up whichever cause or issue seems warranted. Mrs Bush, a former teacher and school librarian, naturally turned to what she knew best, initially: the rights of children, specifically literacy, health, cognitive development and life-long learning programmes. As she grew into the position, she broadened the scope of her work to encompass a range of weightier issues far wider than any previous first lady had tackled.