New Year's Resolutions

I am resolved to chill out - Yes, I can!!!

In the case of Resolutions for the new year, it's already past the conventional deadline of New Year's Eve. And I would find universal agreement on posting resolutions in August as being too late. That's comparable to waiting until February to predict the Super Bowl. In my defense, I can argue that 2009 is a special year with extraordinary distractions. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. After all, one needs to take some time to reflect on such weighty issues as resolution. Still, it's unseemly and unreasonable to procrastinate more than a week after the magical 20-Jan-2009.

So, here goes, first things going, first. I hereby resolve:

• To lose 10 pounds


• To lose 10 more pounds.


• To lose 10 more pounds, still.


• To make progress on that PSA count.


• To check on my IRA once a week.


• To ensure that Trophy Wife gets to select 51% of the Net-Flix we rent, going forward.


• To actually check my two allotted Lotto tickets weekly. Yeah, everyone's gotta believe in something. I believe in hope, not luck. So, for me, I'm one of those guys for which it's been enough to just add a couple of numbers to my desk drawer every week. That's hope. Believing in Lady Luck would mean actually checking for winners. So, I'm going to actually try to be lucky in 2009.


• To run Ballou off-leash for an hour, five days per week. This will contribute to numbers 1, 2, and 3 (above).


• To train up Ballou enough to silence the hyperbolic anxiety of daughters-in-law. This may be a softball. She's coming around quite well. I have re-instituted my good old on/off switch by which I have controlled Dobermen and Doberwomen in the past.


• To contend with all my sons in whatever non-physical venues we can find - board games, card games or digital - and as often as possible. I am not in pursuit of triumph. That's far too elusive for me! I just love marveling at how smartly they are to be able to beat me with a fraction of the concentration and effort I have to muster.


• To marry off my youngest son. I know that's more on him than me, but I need some more softballs on this list, so I'm going to claim this one.


• To sail 44 yacht races and sail them hard, as if they are to become my last, because one never knows ... And I'll do my darndest to see that the boat goes out without me on that 45th race. (I'll be at the wedding-see above!)


• To let my non-political impulses to wash over and rinse out my Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS). As has been pointed out to me, anger, outrage and resentment are natural prompts and can spur much writing. As time passes they begin to sound hollow and shallow. I am not saying I will ever forgive Busheney, Inc. or forget what they have done to our nation. I just have to acknowledge that the original and central premises for The Vigil may have expired.

The self-inflicted occupation of America is over. Bush and Cheney are gone. The most talented political leadership available to us in this many generations has been elected in their place. It doesn't matter to me, much, that I agree or disagree with this or that action by President Obama. Unlike his predecessor, Number 44 is both smarter and better educated than I. Unlike George's case, with Barry at the helm, I can abdicate blogging punditry. With a competent head of state for the first time in this century, I can always argue that our ship of state is guided by a strategic plan so deep that it simply passes my understanding.

That could change, of course.