Happy New Year 2012 Ponderings

New Year's Day...Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions.  ...   Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual............
Mark Twain

I used to be religious about writing down my New Years' resolutions, the first page of my journal, each year for so many years.  But sometime ago I stopped doing that, I still keep a general mental list of things to do in the New Year, all the niceties, striving to be a better, kinder, gentler person, more tolerant, patient, etc  all those humane attributes with which no one quibbles.  And there was usually an accompanying  effort to increase physical fitness and then after the years, was it around my mid 50's when weight emerged as something to fight, there was always a resolution to lose 10 to 15 lbs. 

Now I skip the written list, I can peruse past journals and see if there was ever one or two things I did accomplish over that year....and yes  there were some.  Retirement fully in 2005 was a significant achievement, of a resolution I first recorded in 2002, planning ahead.  Moving to MN from CA fully also occurred in 2005, which was first recorded in 2004 months before we purchased what is now our home, while we  were still living in CA and I was still at it in career time.  Looking back over how much effort the career took, I am amazed; was it all really so relevant?  The verdict is mixed, I think, but I have slid off into not even thinking about those days.  So much so that when a friend mentions something I have to pull deep into my minds folded recesses to recall it. 

Someone, unknown to me said that many people look forward to the New Year for a new start on old habits.   

Is it now in retirement that I have found fewer things to strive for or to perfect when I fully recognize that there is no perfection and we can accomplish without time lines or not.  New adventures, travels and new things to learn abound.  And some old attributes, patience for one still need my work but I have traded patience for ignoring the annoying and that way I go merrily along.  Yesterday we stopped at the grocery store on our way home from New Years eve burgers and Best ever Bloody Mary's at Tom Sawyer's here on French Island, a tavern/restaurant that was long closed and is now renovated and open.  I like the English designation of "pub" for that is what Tom Sawyer's would be called, a nice friendly bar and food can be ordered.  The burgers were delicious, 1/2 pounders and made with fresh ground beef, not frozen discs;  they also make their own  potato chips which were so good, warm and crunchy, but I am rambling so that you can salivate.  My  comment was to be about patience and my lack of it; we only needed a couple things and were  quickly ready to check out; I spotted only one woman in the aisle with a few items and thought that would be fast, but I thought wrong.  There she had 3 or 4  huge trays of  meats and crackers from the deli and was attempting pay for them first with a credit card that was denied  and then with a check that also did not meet the smell test.  Jerry looked at me and shrugged his shoulders.  The woman said to us, "well this is going to take me some time while I pay for all these...."  Oh, sigh, I already had our few purchases on the register belt.  Then I saw she had other items in her cart.  I mentioned to her, "you  still have items in the cart" thinking she might have forgotten them.  "Oh I know those are for other people and I have other money for that."  Oh, blather!  I'm thinking, why don't you pay for them and settle it up later on your own time and dime.  But it is too late.  The folks behind us made a bee line to another cashier and there we were.  The woman finally found cash to pay for her trays and then, here is where it gets good and where my tolerance escapes.  She pulled out food credits, aka food stamps to pay for a couple items; and then she  dug into another  pocket to use yet another credit card to pay for some other items and yes, are you still with me, she had two more items for which she went through the tedious process of counting out change from yet another envelope. By this time, my eyes  had rolled more than once, the poor cashier had lost her smile and I had no further  visions of "peace on earth..."  Later I commented to Jerry that someone relying on food stamps might try to save a dime or several by slicing and cutting up their own cheese and meats.  My tolerance is gone.  Perhaps I am uncharitable too, perhaps she is the neighborhood food runner and was buying for many folks although she did make a point of explaining that the trays were for the New Years Eve party.  It was all too much information for me and yet it was yet again another time I had chosen the wrong line to be in.  If Jerry had not been with me with his  normally  calm attitude, I would have taken our purchases off the register belt and followed the other people to another line.  But he assured me we were already here and so what.  So what, indeed....the so what is people are  a challenge everywhere!   

I did not greet the stroke of midnight.  I used to think I was a night owl, but no more, when the eyelids say it's time for bed, I go along.  2012 holds promise, our 50th high school reunion in September in PA, hope to sell Uncle Carl's home to clear the estate and taxes, and  travel Alaska beckons as well as a Christmas week cruise in 2012. 

Today is the day to imbibe from the bottle of Korbel Dry bubbly purchased for  last night's eve.  And while I enjoy that I am posting.....Happy and Best and Blest 2012 to all.