Resolutions... sort of...

Resolution. 

Firm determination.

It's evident in the full parking lots of gyms in any town with a building big enough to hold a treadmill and weight bench.  Store shelves cleared of weight loss products and home storage filled with items that are absolutely, positively going to give you that svelte body by June.

There's also signs of it in conversation... people vowing that they will save more money this year.  While at the same time filling baskets with more weight loss products that will be forgotten or given away by February.  And those stationary bikes and home gyms become exchange hanging storage.

Oh, don't misunderstand me.  I'm not teasing anyone.  I know all about  these resolutions.  I've made them over and over again... year after year.  "This year I'm going to..." forget what I resolved to do by the time the calendar flips over to the next scenic photograph.

So, in order to head off failure and the complimentary guilt that goes along with it, I've decided to not decide to do what I know I won't do anyway.  This year I've made a list of things I know I'll do and therefore set myself up to succeed.

#1  I plan on having a garden.  Now you might think this isn't any type of a resolution.  But if you had to battle the drought, japanese beetles and grasshoppers that I did last year, you would know it takes a strong resolve to repeat this again.  However... this year me and the ducks will be ready for the bugs.  As far  as the drought... that takes me to resolution #2.

#2  I will watch my water usage more.  Now that is a vague phrase, believe you me.  But each month we receive a water bill that reminds me just why I should be watching how we use the precious commodity and forces us to be more considerate in our ways.

#3  I will be spending more time turning my yard into a aesthetic landscape with flowers, trees and edibles while at the same time spending little or no money doing it.  Sound impossible?  Nope... not at all.  I have great neighbors that I trade back and forth with that are always digging up a bit of this and that for me to transplant, and I'm always ways to get more for less. 

And between all the gardening, lawn work and  toting water... the weight loss part takes care of itself.  Minus me looking like a duck on roller skates trying to figure out all the buttons on the treadmill and learning that a body in motion really does stay in motion.  In particular when it fires off the backend of a treadmill at 75mph.

Well... all this resolving has made me hungry.  So I figure I'll say good afternoon from here on the mountain and go have myself another piece of homemade chocolate pecan pie. 

Have fun living country!