I’ve been working on my New Year’s resolutions for a couple of days, but being down with the crud isn’t really adding much to my positive outlook, so I’ll try to keep them realistic. I’ve never been overly optimistic about these things anyway. I’m more about the fun than the good-for-me variety. I already know that I’m not going to start flossing my teeth regularly after all these years, and my teeth haven’t suffered for it by now, so why go through the agony of failing?

Every year, I try a few new fun things. Riding isn’t exactly new to me, but I’ve been spending the last five years working at it, and getting better and better. Two years ago, my thing was learning to bow-hunt (and that was a ton of fun) and getting more into photography. I might take a class someday yet, but I spent a lot of time figuring out my new and expensive camera, and now I’m jonesing for a fancy new digital.

This last year was the year I started this journal, and that’s been more fun than I ever thought it would. I didn’t think then that I would keep it up, but I’ve surprised myself, and it’s become a habit. I drive down the road composing entries that are mostly forgotten by the time I get to a computer.

This was also the year that I started the business in earnest, and if that hasn’t been a leap of faith, I don’t know what has. Normally, new things don’t really matter all that much. If I want to read some new authors, I do or don’t; it’s not earth-shattering either way. This business is one o’ them life-altering scary things. No, that one doesn’t count as a fun thing, although it has had its moments.

This next year, I resolve to try the following things:

Make the business a success. It doesn’t have to actually run in the black this year, but I need to have a strong enough client base to work with in 2006, when I expect my primary job to go away, or at least to drop to part time. Since I do like to eat and live in a house, this isn’t so much a resolution as a must.

Since I actually belong to a gym, and I’m not happy with the weight I’m carrying, I’d like to make myself actually go more often. Yeah, you saw how well that went last year, but if I don’t at least put it on the list, I’ve given up way too early.

This is the year that I’m going to learn to rope. I’ve made huge strides on the horsemanship end of it in the last few years, and it’s time to start swinging the rope. I want to at least be turning a few off the horse by the end of the year, but it will take months of dummy work before I’m ready to do that. Cowboy’s perfectly willing to help me, and by now I trust him to be patient about it.

And that’s it. One must-do, one probably won’t-do, and a fun one that doesn’t really matter if I do it or not.