Not So Much Resolutions as Guidelines: I don't make resolutions. I make organic goals that will evolve going forward. It's a more holistic approach. Resolutions are so binding, don't cha think? Kind of Fascist in a way. Well, I stand against New Year's Nazis. In the words of the great philosopher Captain Jack Sparrow, "They're more like guidelines." For 2014 there are three categories:
Travel: Again, I suspect there will be no great foreign adventure. Mostly my hopes this year are of getting back to places I want to go again. (Like everything else, I wonder what this says about my state of life. I really need to get over that.) I would like to get back to Maine at some point -- maybe Spring, before the high season starts. I would like to get back to Sanibel Island and continue my explorations into a Gulf Coast vacation/retirement home. I would like to spend time in Utah; get back to Moab and/or Zion to hike The Narrows. I would like to get out to the OC to see Miss Anna. Hawaii, if I have a big expensive trip this year I think I would like it to be back to Maui and Kauai. Alaska has been on the list for so long I no longer even mention it.
Of course there will be Vegas Thanksgiving, Mackinac in September, a Chicago long weekend; all the usual suspects. But for the most part I think travel is going to be opportunistic; it's going to be a matter of what works once the requirements of the 2014 calendar begin to form. I suspect a lot of my travel will coincide with running, which brings me to…
Fitness: First the planned races. Ann Arbor Half Marathon is on 3/30 (this is new, not sure how I got roped into it). The Road Ends trail run in Pinckney is 4/27. The Gnaw Bone 10K in Indiana is 5/10. The Helluva Ride through Chelsea and Grass Lake is 7/12. The Mackinac 8-Miler is (probably) 9/6. The Holiday Hustle is (probably) 12/7.
I need to do more swimming. I was doing a mile pretty regularly in 2012 and I slipped in 2013. So I need to kick it back up with an eye towards doing a triathlon in the summer.
I need to do more yoga. I don't particularly enjoy yoga -- I get bored -- but I do need to keep up maintenance on my joints and flexibility, which I have been slacking on.
I would like to bike a metric century at some point (62 miles). I would like to do one of the big name obstacle runs, either Tough Mudder or Spartan.
I'm a little scared posting all this, since I am now obligated to follow up with results at the end of the year.
House: Big thing is to get the master bath redone. It's going to be a big job, and I honestly don't know if it's even possible to finish it before the year is out. First, I have to figure out specifically what I want to do, then I have to find a contractor, then the work can start. I really need to get on the stick of figuring this out.
Continue to work on the front gardens, the tulip experiment seems to have been a failure, thanks to bunnies and deer and whatever voracious creatures inhabit the surrounding area. I need to get things sorted and I need to mulch.
Paint the guest bedrooms and outfit them -- this I hope to coincide with a switch to DirectTV.
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Overall, I'd guess I'll get about half this done.
And there are always, always more words to be written.
