I’m writing this post at about half-past ten on New Year’s eve (Alaska time, so most of the rest of the world has already passed into the new year). The rain and wind has let up from our rather earlier than usual mid-winter tropical storm warm up, and from my living room window, I can see the bright explosions of color from the neighbor’s fireworks and also the reflected orange and gold flashes of light against the birch and spruce trees from yet another neighbor’s fireworks. It sounds vaguely like a shooting range where naval artillery is being tested. After work today I’m tired enough to go to bed now, but I’m staying up because I bought some (cheap) champagne special for the occasion, and I’m not going to drink it at any other time so…

Anyhow, for the past several days I’ve been thinking about new year’s resolutions. It would be easy to say, I’m going to finish my story this year work on getting it published and start on the next one. The thing is, I don’t want to make that the one goal for the year I promise myself tonight. Sure, getting my story done a goal, has been for a while, but I’ve never managed to keep a new year’s resolution, and I don’t want to taint my effort by calling it a resolution. I think I’m going to settle for my resolution to be losing a bit of weight. If I manage to finish my story this year, then yay! Otherwise, oh well, it’s not a big deal, I can keep cracking away at it – no pressure. I will finish it sometime, I don’t need a new year’s resolution to get it done, I just need to keep at it.