I Resolve: No Resolutions

This last day of year 2011 finds me with too many things to do that I'd rather not have to do; at least, not today. I wanted to write a serious post, one that requires serious thought and analysis of my chosen subject; that being, Where Do I Go From Here?  (Redundancy intentional.)


It isn't that I haven't a clue to answering that question, just that I want to give it the undivided attention it deserves. Instead, I have errands to run, housework that MUST be done (absolutely must be done - my house is beginning to resemble a rabbit warren.)


One thing I will not waste time on is making resolutions for the coming new year. I never keep them. Maybe I should resolve to keep my resolutions. No, not on your life! It won't work, trust me! I know me too well.

What will happen is that for the first couple of weeks in January, I will remember the list of resolutions first thing every morning, pointing out to myself that I haven't made any effort to keep even the simplest of them.  Next comes the the compromise that, okay, so I didn't do it yesterday, but I can do it today! Just as soon as I get X, Y and Z accomplished this morning. By early afternoon, then. Well, for chrissake, before bedtime, anyway!

The next morning starts off the same and goes on thusly for perhaps ten days. At which point, the resolutions have become a niggling, nagging, mosquito-whiny something-or-other thing I was supposed to recall upon rising. The word resolutions has faded from conscious memory, and my subconscious has dug its grave, laid the banana peel at the edge of the hole and is waiting quietly for the word to wander by, whereupon it will be guided to take a look at what's at the bottom of the grave. You know the rest of the slap-stick routine.


Now, see? I could have spent the twenty minutes or so that it has taken me to scribble  write TYPE this nonsense thinking about the more important things I wanted to say. But, no-o-o-o! I'm going to post this, sans picture (sans relevance?) then run my errands.


What was it I said I would do today, while I was sitting on the side of my bed, trying to wake up this morning?

Aha! I have a resolution I know I can keep. I resolve: to take a pad of paper and a pen upstairs for my bedside table, so that I can write this stuff down at the moment the thoughts occur. In fact, I will place them on the stairs as a reminder.  Before I run the errands.  Yes, that's what I'll do!


(Keystone Cops moment: woman slips on ignored pen, still on stairs the next morning, and slides down the steps, face up, head first. Airborne pad of paper lands on her face. On the top sheet of paper, in bold face, two-inch capital letters, is her note-to-self: TAKE THIS UPSTAIRS! Fade to black.)