I won't be in bed, or partying, at midnight tonight. I'll be at the ambulance base waiting for someone to need me. I'm just a lowly EMT, but I've been out about 1,800 times now, so New Years Eve probably won't present me with anything I haven't seen yet - but you never know. Right now, as I listen to the New York Philharmonic's concert on PBS, I'm thinking about what I'd like to do next year.
It's hard for me to believe, but I'll be 64 in 2008. Fortunately, I've got good genes and am in pretty good shape, so my options are wide open - knock on wood. Yet my time is limited by many commitments, the primary one being the bookkeeping work I do for four different non-profits. I have to schedule everything else around their financial calendars, but that still leaves time for quite a lot. After all, as they used to say in the army, "there's 24 hours in a day", so maybe I can fit all of the activities below into 2008.
1. Start hitting the elliptical trainer and the weights hard for four months. I'll stay at 180 pounds, but the weight will move to all the right places. It's fun to see the kid muscles come back...so I can...
2. Hit the AT again, even though last year I vowed I was done after experiencing heat exhaustion. This year I'll go out in April and risk some cold days and nights in New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Maybe Maine is still possible...
3. and when I get back from the AT, golf season will be starting. I finished last year at a USGA 13 handicap but wanted to get to 10. Now I've got new Mizuno irons, so perhaps those pesky greens will be easier to find on second shots.You've got to have a goal if you want to get better.
4. My three sons, three grandsons, and one granddaughter need to know their grandfather. I'll spend some quality time with them, with the bonus of traveling to Phoenix just when the Rochester winter seems like it will never end.
5. Good Witch and I will take at least three more "Teaching Company" courses. We've ordered "Great American Music: Broadway Musicals" by Professor Bill Messenger of the Peabody Institute of Music. (Come on, readers! Try one!)
6. I need to do a good job as Clerk of Session at Christ Clarion Presbyterian Church this year. It's not a power position, but I will be in the middle of some important tasks including finding a new permanent minister. I love my friends at Christ Clarion because they are quietly sincere about living their faith and so many of them have great talents. They inspire me.
7. I need to find a few more great authors. The more I read, the harder it is to find an interesting book. I just started "The Worst Hard Time", a non-fiction work about the families who rode out the 1930's Great Plains dust storm era. That won't last long. Any suggestions?
8. (A resolution I will likely break.) My home is now 30 years old, and even though it's had several major renovations and additions, it's getting shabby in a few places. This would be a great year for some major maintenance, but that's the activity that tends to fall to the bottom of the list. Maybe I'll have to hire some of the work out to professionals.
9. I'd like to improve my blogging style - get more creative, less preachy. Perhaps I need to improve my perception of daily life episodes that can be employed as springboards to more generalized commentary. Some of my blogger friends have real talent in this area.
10. I hope to continue treasuring each day, being sensitive to the needs of others, and remembering to thank that great power who made my consciousness possible.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Have you read anything by P.G. Wodehouse? His book Pigs Have Wings is easily the funniest book I've ever read.
If you're looking for something more serious, there's a series of books about artists called "in their own words." I have Gauguin: In His Own Words, and I know they have also done Monet, Van Gogh, and several others. It's pictures of the artists works, in chronological order, along with letters and journal entries from the same time.
I should be so optimistic about my goals in my 65th year. You inspire me. (There - you can add that to your 2008 accomplishments.)
Books? Flow or Evolving Self by Csikszentmihalyi. Nonzero by Robert Wright. Last year, a couple of fiction books that stood out: Borrowed Time by Goddard and the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. Have a great '08.
Post a Comment