Many resolutions, only two goals in 2018

“Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.” ~Oscar Wilde 

                   Bruce Wallace

Thinking that the Irish comedian/writer was correct, I don’t really make resolutions.

OK, Oscar was absolutely right. Resolutions are easily made, easily broken.

I have better luck setting goals – I have no idea why – but have a goal-setting session around the New Year’s holiday makes me do a little self-assessment and ask myself one question:

“What do you really want?”

I’m not the kind of guy who neglects to count his many blessings. I know how lucky I am to have done this job, work with the people I enjoy working with and write about a unique community and its residents. (Some of whom are more, uh, unique than others.)

My many resolutions include a little weight loss, naturally, more exercise, more reading, more walking the dog and more fixing things around the house. I need to spend a few weekends cleaning out some closets and the garage needs another good purge. All fine resolutions. All easily pushed aside for another year.

The list goes on and is about as hum-drum as anyone’s resolutions. I have not resolved to wrestle alligators in the Amazon or climb to the highest point of any mountain. I did away with the many hazards of summer vacations a number of years ago.

My Number 1 Goal for 2018 is to do a 180-degree turn from all that I’ve enjoyed doing for the past so many years.

Instead of stepping into my office at 201 S. Henry Clay on Monday mornings, I look forward to stepping outside my RV and seeing the trees.

Instead of answering and returning phone calls, my goal will be to leave the phone turned off for a week.

A WEEK!

“Can’t be done,” said a friend of mine.

“You are too connected,” said another.

“Just watch me try,” I replied.

I’m looking forward to not checking the mailbox on a daily basis and not checking my in-box at all.

Getting disconnected might be tougher than I think, but I also know the further from population centers I travel, the easier it will be.

The other goal for 2018?

Nearly the opposite of what I just described.

Goal Number 2: Hang upside down while traveling more than 50-mph.

Any time a theme park installs a new roller coaster, it gets my attention. And when it’s in your own backyard, who can say “No?”

Silver Dollar City will open its new Time Traveler thrill ride next Spring and I will be fighting Joe Miller to be first in line.

This roller coaster is unlike any other in many ways, but to start with, riders will have a 10-story drop right out of the barn.

“Ten stories? You must be crazy! That would scare the pants off me!” you might say.

“Absolutely,” is my reply.

If you’re not good and petrified with a 10-story drop, three inversions while riding in a car that spins on its axels ought to make your head explode. “If you haven’t ridden a roller coaster, it’s just not summer,” another grandfather told me this past summer. Amen, brother.

Bring on the thrills and the quiet of 2018.