Monday, January 11, 2010

New Year’s Resolutions



Well, we made it. We are now well into 2010. I really don’t know the significance of that, other than the fact that we made it one more trip around the sun. That’s pretty good news, I guess. Of course if the Nostradamus seers are to be believed then we have a scant two years before the end of the world.
At any rate, we have a tradition of making resolutions at the beginning of the New Year. I don’t know how or why the tradition started, or even why we do it. I saw one statistic that 90% of all New Year’s Resolutions are dropped before February (remember that 96.374% of all statistics are made up on the spot). This is likely because most Americans resolve to lose weight (or some bad habit that they have held for the last two decades) and we rarely look at the root cause of what we are trying to get rid of. Occasionally we resolve to do something GOOD for the year, but these resolutions are often dropped because they were unreasonable in the first place. People usually try for the grand slam when all they need is a single to win the game. I have just two resolutions for the year:
1. Update this blog more often (I’m doing better – I only missed posting this on New Year’s Day by 10 days)
2. Finally put in that solar water heater that I have been talking about since I bought my house (about a decade ago – dang I’m getting old)
Somebody once told me that the best way to keep a resolution is to tell people about it…that way they can hold you to it. Well I have now blogged my intentions, so the two of you that read this can hold me to them. In the mean time, why don’t you resolve to do a little something for the planet? It doesn’t have to be a grand slam (like building that LEED Platinum house that you’ve wanted all these years). You may only need a single to win the game (try a programmable thermostat, Bring Your Own Bags, turn off lights, walk when you can, plant a few trees, pick up some trash). Go ahead and tell me your resolutions…I’ll try to hold you to them.