I’m resolving to just wing it and see what happens.

Bill Patterson (Calvin and Hobbes author)

The new year is upon us, which means the shitshow that was 2020 is now history. I am inclined to wonder weirdness awaits us in the year ahead?

New Years Day is, of course, the day when we “resolve” to improve ourselves in some way during upcoming year. I mentioned last year that I’ve reached a point in my life where I am no longer interested in “improving” myself (see here: Happy New Year 2020Mr. Vintage Man).

What you see is what you get.

That being said, there are still things in this life that I would still like to accomplish. Last year the Covid outbreak threw a wrench into some of my resolutions. Even so, I would say I had a 50% success rate.

This year I’m going to try something a little different, in hopes of better outcomes. I’m setting specific & concrete goals, rather than making vague & unspecific ones like I did last year. This should make it easier to hold myself accountable.

Speaking of accountability, it is my intention to repeat what I did last year: I intend to review my list of goals at the start of each month and see how I am progressing.

Enough talk, let’s get to ’em. I present to you my:

2021 Goals

– I aim to lose 10% of my bodyweight by the last day of 2021.

I suppose this could be considered a “self-improvement” goal, but my reasons for setting this one are eminently practical. Forcing my body to carry around my current weight is killing my knees and back.

– Mrs. Vintage and I will visit a hot spring somewhere in Colorado, one that we have never been to before.

A chance for us to get out town for a couple of days and soak our cares away.

– Read one book from my “Harvard Classics: Five foot shelf of books”.

Years ago I was given a book collection called “The Harvard Classics: Five Foot Shelf of Books”. Beautiful books, but I’ve only read a few of them. So this year I intend to read a least one, if not more.

– Read one book from my TimeLife “Classics of the Old West” collection.

Over time I have collected Time-Life’s Old “Classics of the Old West” (not to be confused with Time-Life’s “The Old West” series) from used bookstores and online resources. I have only read a couple of these as well, so my goal is to read at least one of them this year.

Set up soaker hoses in the garden beds to improve watering.

Overhead watering of garden borders can be wasteful, as much of the water evaporates into the air before it can soak into the ground. Laying out soaker hoses and covering them with mulch should improve water penetration into the soil and, more importantly, reduce my watering bill this summer.

I’ve got a few more goals written down, but I think this is a good place to leave off.

How did you fare on your resolutions of last year? What are you resolving to do this year?