Birthday Resolutions

The best thing about having a birthday exactly a week after New Year’s is you get extra time to come up with resolutions. I went back to last year and read what I wrote and realized I deftly dodged making any. I devoted the resolution forum to the universal request of all the beauty contestants, “for world peace”, or at least peace in these United States.

We can look back and realize not much was granted of that wish. I’m not going to list all the instances and ways we fell short as a human race. I’ll just say it wasn’t a good year for “Thou Shalt Not Kill” and we coveted our neighbor’s house, wife and pretty much anything else posted on Facebook including their meals, cats, dogs and vacations. If only life could be as good as Facebook!

I think I had a trite goal to lose weight that hadn’t had much success in the past. But in May I got a little app for my phone, MyFitNessPal, which allowed me to easily track what was going in my mouth and evaluate the calories consumed against my target burn for the day. I got extra calories for steps on my GarminFit so that was a real plus! I lost 11 pounds between May and September and reached my past plateau of 182. I was optimistic I could break the 180 barrier that was so close!

Alas! The holidays came and I’ve given six pounds back. I studiously avoiding tracking what went in my mouth during the holidays because there were too many entries. My steps have faltered as well with the cold weather and GarminConnect and MyFitNessPal have had a falling out and no longer pass active calories. Until my apps start talking I can’t be expected to get back on track. Right?

I think I will start back on the routine to success tomorrow. Today I’ve told my app proudly about the two boiled eggs and banana for breakfast. I’m still mulling over how to explain the chocolate chip cupcake my wife left with my wakeup birthday card. Or the other one still on the counter. Or the cake that lies in wait at my birthday party this evening at a restaurant nearby that satisfies my criteria of never having eaten there. I think it’s a Mongolian Teriyaki Indian Grill or something. Likely to find something new to the taste buds!

I pledge my variation of the oath of the 12 step addict, “Lord, I admit I’m powerless over baked goods and around them my waistline becomes unmanageable.” I often wonder if being a crack addict would be easier as wives, coworkers and church members hardly ever bring drugs to Christmas or birthday parties. But baked goods dominate every holiday meal or pot luck.

I also had a vague resolution to write more with this blog being a major forum and I’ve done worse at that than my diet. This is the first entry since August, which is embarrassing since I start teaching a class next week where one of the assignments is to create a blog with five entries. I think I barely did five entries for 2015!

In examining my lack of motivation I think I expended a great amount of energy and personal capital on two entries for memorials for the loss of my “Other Brother”, Henry Teague, and a good high school friend, Larry Robertson. So much so I didn’t have anything left for the passing of the literal girl next door, Brenda Carter. Brenda was the instigator of our merry band of guys and dolls in our Houston neighborhood growing up and deserved her own entry. I may need to muster memories belatedly.

When you’re writing a blog about a place for old men, loss is going to be part of the menu. I’m going to have to do a better job dealing with it. This getting old isn’t for sissies.

I also whiffed on commenting on the most significant happening of last year, the birth of Kooper Michael Montgomery, my first grandchild in 16 years. He shares his middle name with his other grandfather and me. Just when I thought we could drive by Chucky Cheese with impunity we will be dragged back to the fear and loathing of being mugged for change by little people to play the games. I should have written a trumpet piece about such an occurrence. I’ve had a theme rolling around in my mind for nine months I need to sit down and put thoughts to paper. So I’ll resolve to make that happen.

In the coming year I resolve to write more often and maybe with more brevity so the act of writing isn’t so formidable. Think blurb rather than dissertation. I need to write what someone like myself with Adult ADD will actually read on their phone.

I resolve to not let my growing physical limitations dictate my activities. I will embrace the senior tees and the fact my back is making my golf swing look like a man casting a ham on a fly rod. I will go back to playing the guitar even though Arthur is playing havoc with the fingers on my fretting hand and I can’t seem to keep the nails on my picking fingers from breaking off. Maybe I’ll write some more songs only I know so nobody will know when I do them wrong.

I resolve to not let the pain of loss of anyone or the prospect of my own impeding stage exit keep me from embracing those still in my life. Life is for the living and so is A Country For Old Men.