My Sunday Feeling

The "holidays" are over.  School has cranked back up.  The last quarterly taxes for 2019 have been paid.  

I praise God for all of this.  Time to get on with the new year.  

I don't really know what that means exactly because I don't typically make resolutions for the new year.  Weak vessel that I am, I know that I wouldn't keep many if I did.  Why set myself up for failure right from the get-go?

But I do have some intentions for the new year.  "Intentions" are little more than hopes. And hopes get routinely dashed sometimes for reasons that have nothing to do with the indiscipline of the intender.  So I got an out.  

Anyway, here are some of my intentions.  Not that you asked.  

It is my intention to take more pictures this year.  And I plan to start when Oaklawn Park cranks back up in a couple of weeks.  Hot Springs is an aging madam of a town.  It's as seedy as all get out in places and that makes for interesting photography.  And you can't beat being among the railbirds if you need to see a cross section of what passes for humanity.  I'm also going to sneak off to Shiloh Battlefield in the spring.  It's just the other side of Memphis and it's way heavy.  

It is my intention to get back in shape.  The last year has been a blur to tell you the truth.  But the Deacon and I seem to have a routine down now.  Everything is no longer totally new.   Now is as good a time as any to get back into an exercise routine.  And golf is not exercise other than an exercise in futility.

Further in that regard, it is my intention to start playing guitar again.  I tried to stick with it after my friend and teacher Lucas Murray left for bigger and better things in the Big Apple.  But what with planning a wedding, looking at houses,ponying up money, fixing my old house up for sale and nailing down logistics there was just no time to work on music.  Or anything else to speak of.

Come to think of it, is my intention never to go through anything like the Spring and Summer of 2018 again.  

It is my intention to be a better vegan cook.  I've tried my hand at some things, mainly so the Deacon won't have to cook after her meetings and/or school stuff.  So far it hasn't been bad although nothing as good as what she cranks out on a routine basis.  Having said that I made a vegan tortilla soup the other night that was pretty damn good.  I could eat that every week.  And most likely will.  

It is my intention to actually familiarize myself with the Probate Code since I seem to be doing, well, probate work.  So far so good.  Some guys are "put it together" lawyers.  I am a "take it apart' kind of lawyer and I have been associated in on cases where I have been required to take stuff apart.  Mercifully, probate is sufficiently like bankruptcy in that I could intuit my way around it with adult supervision from guys who are competent in the field.  But God forbid I ever have to give estate planning advice.  At least at my stage of development right now.

Speaking of which, it is my intention to update the Last Will and Testament I wrote 20 years ago.  I mean, my God.  I have a wife.  And stepchildren.  And assets and stuff. Things that were inconceivable back in those halcyon days of yesteryear when I had maybe 3 grand available post-mortem. That and the bequest I made in my earlier Will to "Sam's Roundup Lounge" in the French Quarter (the one with a rig ax stuck in the bar) would likely be considered unseemly for a gentleman of my age and station.  Need to rewrite.  

It is my intention to keep a close eye on whatever the hell it is the Methodists wind up doing to ourselves in May.  It may be time to expose my basic cynicism to other belief systems.  The former Senior Pastor at my church once told a Baptist preacher buddy of ours that I would turn Orthodox Druid before I ever became a Baptist.  So what the hell?  Why not give the Orthodox Druids a look?  They couldn't be any more dysfunctional. 

It is my intention to avoid crazy people.  Or continue that practice I should say.  I have avoided crazy for at least the last ten or eleven years.  Indeed the Deacon is one of the sanest people I know.  People that have known me for a long time don't know whether to attribute her presence in my life to a stroke of luck on my part or to a lack of sense on hers.  I'm not going to worry my pretty little head about it as is I refuse to get drawn into theological discussions.  Suffice it to say I lucked out for once.  In any event, people that are feet-in-the-air nuts, while not without their discrete charms, are more trouble than they are worth at this point in my walk on this Earth.  

It is my intention to avoid Valentine's Day.  Yeah. I know. Good luck.  

And it is my very strong intention to avoid social media and all of the incessant emails during this election year.  In fact, my goal will be to limit my iPhone and iPad use to once an hour.  If possible.  Things are going to be exceedingly crazy this year.  And, like I said, I want to avoid crazy.

That's all I can think of for now.  I know that I will be doing to good to keep a third of these intentions.  But that's OK.

We all know what the road to hell is paved with.