Here we go again.  It’s time to make our New Year’s Resolutions.  Yep, the same ones (for the most part) that we have made annually since the earth cooled.  We pull them out, dust them off and run them again year after weary year.  Sometimes we make it clean through Valentine’s Day without infractions, but not too often.  Let’s take a look at them  and see if they have any potential for 2011:

(1) Make better use of my time.  This encompasses a lot of ground, and can mean many things to many people.  This could cover spending more time with family and friends, which could be good, or it could mean that I shouldn’t pile up on the couch with a critter or two and read something – and that would not be good.  This will take some thought.

(2) Become better organized.  God, I hate this one.  It means that I should do a better job with things like filing.  Bleeach!  I haven’t finished 2009′s filing, for that matter.  Maybe I just shouldn’t bother with this one, although it’s clearly indicated.  I’ll think this one over as well.

(3) To become more fit.  Well, disability has done a number on this one, but I really should still try harder.  I should – I really, really should.

(4) To finally lose those last few pounds.  Well, maybe after the holiday, that last any number of pounds.  As we have previously discussed, I really like vegetables, so I should get a flying start on this after the first of the year.  Then I should really hurry because Valentine’s Day, Saint Patrick’s Day and Easter are forthcoming and those can be diet-ending events in and of themselves. 

(5) To quit smoking/drinking/whatever the bad habit.  Actually, I haven’t smoked in more than a decade, and I drink very rarely, so these are easy enough to keep.  Thank God – it was looking rather dismal there for a while.

(6) To get out of debt.  I wish!  However, my diving property values vis a vis my soaring health care costs tell me that this will not occur.  Oh, and by that I do not mean that I have any new health care costs – it’s just that they keep escalating.  Oh, and my threatened public pension and Social Security incomes are verbally assaulted daily, so the whole get out of debt thing looks pretty feeble, I think.

(7) To learn something new.  This one, I have actually kept, and TW has a great deal to do with it.  MadamaB has enhanced my computer skills and the TW commenters have stretched my knowledge base to no end.  Muchas gracias, y’all!

(8) To help others.  When one thing leaves in life, another thing replaces it.  While I cannot work any longer, I now have time that I could have only dreamed of in the past.  I work with Toys for Tots, the Saint Vincent de Paul Society and several historic groups.  I have worked with the ACLU in rights restorations, and I hope to do more in 2011.  There are no end of problems in this world, and maybe we can help just a little bit.  This one, I can actually sign onto.  Not to mention, there are whole new vistas out there.  Recovering Democrats are waking up and realizing that things are amiss.  We can all be helpful here, as we will need these folks in the near and immediate futures.

(9) Enjoy life, and don’t sweat the small stuff.   I can honestly say that I do, but not in any way that I ever envisioned.  There have been some serendipitous finds in my life, and The Widdershins has been one of the best.  I find, however that I must constantly re-define “the small stuff”.  For example, last year I decided not to get upset over something as piddly as a football game.  That lasted two games and was, shall we say, punted.  I’m probably going to get upset, and  football in the South just isn’t “small stuff”.  Even Pop Warner ball has mammoth meaning down here.  It just is.  I guess that “small stuff” is all that other annoying trivia of life, so I shall strive to not be quite as bothered by junk mail, silly commercials and Fundie friends who swear that Glenn Beck will lead us to the promised land.  You know what, that may not go any better than the whole football thingie did, now that I think of it.

(10) Identify areas to work on for the 2012 elections.  It’s time to begin to look at suitable candidates, and check them out carefully.  There’s not a lot of time, and there’s not a great deal of money and we should expend both carefully.  There’s a lot to be done at the local level, with a weather eye kept on the national stage lest 2008 repeat itself.

What’s up for 2011 for The Widdershins?  This is an open thread.