Friday, January 1, 2010

2010 And Beyond


My wife and I celebrated the dropping of the Times Square Ball the same way we have for the last twenty years; by sleeping. As memory serves the very last time I got into New Years revelry was December 31 of 1968. My buddy, Craig, and I were cruising the streets and bars of Waterloo, Iowa looking for a party. We did get two dates but I'm not sure where or how. They must have been, like us, date losers, since we hooked up a couple of hours before the changing of years. We had to flip a coin to find out who got whom.
I'm semi-optimistic about the year 2010 in one regard. It's an even numbered year. I mentioned this to a family member of mine in an e-mail yesterday. Even numbered years denote positive; odd ones are negative. If you don't believe me check this out. The beginning of WWI for the US was 1917; The Great Depression was in 1929. WWII came in 1941 and the World Trade Center disaster fell in 2001. You should note that I was born in 1946. This is good for me. It's an even numbered year. It's also meaningful for my children. Because it was '46 my children and my grandchildren exist. Had it been an odd year, well, they wouldn't.
Economist articles I glanced at this morning were gloomy about '10. Truth be told, I am, too. However, my wife and I talked this over at great length in 2009, an odd numbered year. If we lost everything tomorrow we wouldn't be that upset. I had, for twenty years, the best job a guy could have working for the best man to own a company. We were able to do things and go places that today seem like a dream. I've always figured I came into the world with nothing so what's the problem with going out the same way.
I've never made a list of things I wanted to accomplish for the New Year. It would set me up for the big fall. Example: There may be the off-hand chance, come golf season, some guy will offer me a cigarette and I'll suck it down. Had I made a silly resolution to never smoke again until death us do part I might have felt as though I'd committed adultury or worse. My mind works that way. Why in any body's name would a person say, "I'm going to lose that troublesome one hundred pounds I've been wearing for thirty years. See, that's a prescription for failure. Don't make resolutions. As a famous philosopher, I think it was Confucius, once said: "Resolutions are dumb".

I should have two hip replacements in the next year. I keep putting them off because, for lack of a better way to say it, I'm a big baby when it comes to getting cut open. I may do it in 2010 or I may not.
I'll continue life the way I have. I start the day bringing the newspaper and coffee to my wife. I'm going to golf every day, if possible. I'll see my grandchildren as much as I can and I'll pray. That's the least I can do for the pleasure of the last 64 years.
Happy New Year and Go Hawkeyes!

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