52 Permanent Changes

Okay, I'm going to bite the bullet here. I'm going to use this blog to track the next year of my life as measured in "permanent changes." My goal is to enact 52 permanent changes to my life in the coming year. Not so much becasuse I'm unhappy, more because I want to jump into life and line things up the way I want them to be. That's not to say my changes will be huge. Most will be in the neigborhood of home maintenance (a fifteen year old house that still has contractor's paint walls in many rooms could use a new year's resolution).

So for the nitty gritty. Last week I painted a room in the basement. Total cost of my renovation is in the neighorhood of $75. I'll post a picture later today (my camera's in the car). This week my change goes more to the financial. This week I'm realigning some finances. the specific things I'm doing includes setting up direct deposit for my kid's college education, moving the kid's savings account to a bank that will actually pay them some small amount of interest, and applying to re-fi the mortgage. I've already done one of these and I plan to do the other two on Monday. The rates are really low...

I think the recession is an opportunity to pull back and maybe get a couple of bargains. Also, I better re-finance now while we're both still employed. As for my "do something nice" resolution...all I'll say is so far so good.

bye

Here's what I'm thinking...when there's a snow day maybe all the teachers (and other school related employees) could go to the student's houses and babysit so the rest of us can go to work.

Or...maybe the weathermen should do this. Maybe then they wouldn't be so dramatic about the forecast.

I love being home with my kids, it's my employer that's not too wild about it.

That said, what I really want to write about today is New Year's resolutions. Ah...everyone says they don't have any or they aren't making them this year, but inside their brains they're thinking, "I'm going to try to lose a few pounds." I think everyone thinks this (or some version of it). Personally, I know I do. I don't say it out loud, though, because I also plan in my mind to fail. So what kind of a weird tradition is this?

I was going to write in this thing that I want to do 52 permanent changes this year. And to prove I was serious, last Sunday I painted my basement. Now I'm thinking just one permanent change is pretty good. Hey, last week my basement was a dirty white. Maybe I'll tell you all about my second permanent change next time I post. Oh yeah, I also plan to do one nice thing for someone else each week. On this resolution I will not speak. If you tell everyone you did something nice it doesn't really count. Those will be a secret but I'll let you know if I slack off.

Bye.