New Year’s Resolutions

First, a couple of resolutions I’m not making:

• It’s silly to claim you’re all of a sudden going to start
  working on something you’ve been doing no work on for years. So
  I’m not going to resolve to learn a language or run a
  marathon.
• While there are lots of reasons why weighing 20 pounds less
  would be a good thing, I’m not going to resolve to lose weight.
  All the sensible things to do that lose weight have other good
  effects, and the obvious ones that work and aren’t sensible
  aren’t what you want to resolve to do. (E.g., I lost 15 pounds
  in the hospital with my hip surgery, but if I can, I want to
  avoid doing that again.)

So here are the things I’ve been working on some, but want to
work on more effectively in the New Year:

Housecleaning.

Cleaning out Bonnie’s house was an
experience I wouldn’t want to wish on *my* executrix, and
anyway, I enjoy being in my house more when it’s uncluttered and
reasonably free of dust, grime, and dog hair. I’ve made
progress on the public rooms in the last year, and I’m getting
better at doing the maintenance in small doses rather than
waiting until I’ve scheduled an hour or more. I have some ideas
for spending a little money on furniture that will contribute to
the uncluttered look in the living room, and I’m doing well on
throwing out a couple of things from the currently hopeless
rooms every Wednesday. So we’ll see if I make even more
progress this year.

Exercise.

I’ve probably gone backwards this year, because
the dog-walking is less aerobic with an elderly, arthritic dog
than with a young, vigorous one. So what I’m going to work on
is running more errands on foot by myself, and maybe figuring
out a yoga routine I can do with the hip restrictions that I
enjoy as much as I did the one I had before the arthritis made
me stop doing it.

Blogging.

I think I’ve made progress on making the blog
interesting over the last year. I’d like to be more consistent
about taking pictures to illustrate it, and maybe finding a
better focus.