An Early New Year

I don't want to recap Christmas Day but to say that it was a full moon, and through the haze, I got to watch it.  No real surprises yesterday except for who I heard from and who I didn't hear from at all or so much.  There were both great and terrible surprises.  Life, you know, is full of them.  

But we are done with all the foolishness I put up here the last month, and I'm not waiting to start a new year.  Mine begins today.  I have eschewed a healthy diet these last few weeks in order to celebrate with friends.  This morning at five a.m., I got up and threw away all the sweets and cookies and whatever else might tempt me in my weaker moments.  I'm up and being productive.  The washer is washing and awaiting another load.  It is barely six now.  My exercise regimen was going to include long early morning walks, but--and I am loathe to tell you this--I have developed plantar fasciitis.  I can hardly put weight on my left heel.  What to do?  Stretching, ice, ibuprofen, ice, new shoes, ice, massages, ice, and orthotics.  So The Google tells me.  Shit, piss, fuck, goddamn.  But whatever.  My new year includes more PMA.  

Positive Mental Attitude.  

"And how will you do that?" you might ask.  

I don't know yet.  I'll use The Google.  

I can't give it all away yet, but there will be changes in habit and behavior.  Hookers and blow?  Again, I don't know, but I think you can use The Google for that, too.  

Definitely more reading and less YouTube.  I've gotten a little imbalanced there.  

And this morning I realized something that I've been missing in my life.  Argument.  I love to argue.  Or at least I used to.  Not emotional arguments, but cold, dispassionate, sporty things.  Some people can't.  They get too emotional, especially those who constantly lose.  I'm not saying they are constantly wrong, they just don't have the argumentative temperament or skills.  They weren't kids on the debate team in high school.  My father and I used to argue all the time, and people thought we were mad at one another.  

What?  No.  We argued heatedly and with passion but not with anger or malice.  It was like sparring in the gym.  We loved one another and we loved the sport.  No one ever got injured.  But there not so many people in my life with whom I can do that now, and to keep at least a couple friends, I've eschewed the practice.  Now I smile and tell people, "Yea. . . that could be the case."  Whatever.  Some people are just used to being right without pushback, especially fellows with bachelor's degrees in business or finance who have made a lot of money.  It's not easy to have friends if you are going to try to prove you are the smartest guy in the room.  So. . . I've learned to grin. . . and bear it.  

I need someone to argue with.  Maybe I'll join a club.  

I have found out over a lifetime of learning that wives and girlfriends don't like it, not even the smart ones.  Well, they have all been smart, but even the ones with advanced degrees. . . .  I will try not to make the mistake of doing that with a lover again no matter how much smarter than me she is.  

That should be "I" instead of "me," I think, but, you know. . . that's not the way people speak.  "No matter how much smarter she is than I."  Whatever.  It's not worth arguing about.  Ha!I must look forward with energy to this new year.  

I will be editing more of the old films and doing it more creatively.  I'm getting the hang of the editing tool now, and I am finding that as melancholy as they make my mother, they have spurred a fountain of old memories.  She is telling me things about her childhood and our lives in Ohio that I have never heard before.  My family history is a little fatter.  I won't make you watch them, but they will be available to you.  There is nothing worse than someone inviting you over to the house for supper and then pulling out the slide projector so you can see their summer vacation.  

I know, people don't use slide projectors, and there is something worse--people showing you pictures of their family or garden or whatever on their goddamned phones.  At least in a slideshow you can drift or even close your eyes.  

So. . . you won't have to watch them.  I'll give you the option.  I want to be a good host.  

I may begin making some contemporary ones, too.  Still under consideration.  

The sun isn't up yet.  It is an early start to the new year.  I must get busy.  

Oh. . . just one more Christmas thing.  My hillbilly friend C.C. gave me a delicious present.  I'm saving it for a good old fashioned dinner with my mother, maybe New Year's Eve.

Ho!