January 3, 2018

HAT TIPS

Hello,

I hope you had a wonderful and safe New Year’s celebration. I’m not too much on a new year. It seems, that as I age, the years speed up. I know they still do the polka in New Hradec, and they still do the waltz in Tennessee, but do they stay up until midnight to do it? Inquiring minds want to know.  I can’t stay up late enough anymore to find out. That’s sad.
But Shirley still insists that I try to find resolutions to break as we start a new year. I hope you notice that I most likely will break any resolution that I make. It is a sad history of unfulfilled resolutions.
Some of them I really try to make a reality. But on many, I do not try very hard.
Everyone resolves to lose weight. How is that going for you? I mean, after the holidays, and the ham, prime rib, fruitcake, chocolate, sour cream pie with whipped cream, Tom and Jerry’s, wine, steak and eggs, I mean it is pretty easy to lose weight for a week or two. Just begin eating kind of normal again. You will lose weight like a cow in a blizzard.
But once you kind of settle into your normal routine, your weight will stabilize at 40 or 50 pounds over what the doctor says you should be. At least that is my finding.
So losing weight is out. I am going to try to stabilize at 40 pounds overweight. That is my comfort zone.
I resolve to not smoke. That is a pretty easy one for me. Since I haven’t smoked in 16 or 17 years. Unless you count a cigar at Thanksgiving when it is 60 above zero and we are sitting on the deck.
I am going to take Shirley on a trip. We will probably go south. Maybe to Reva or even Rapid City! That will be a nice break for her.
I am going to pull the summer shoes off the mare I was riding last summer. You are supposed to reset or pull shoes off in about six weeks.  Not six months.  
I am going to clean my pickup cab out a bit. My Dad, who is 92 years old, says it is the dirtiest pickup he has ever seen. And in 92 years of farming and ranching, he has seen some terribly dirty pickups. Usually mine.
I am going to buy my cats some canned cat food. Just to whet their appetite a bit and keep them hanging around the tack room. I don’t care for cats. But I abhor mice.
I will try to make my annual operating note at the bank last more than three months. Four would be a record. Everyone from my banker to my wife would appreciate an effort like that.
And last, but not least, I will try to write one article ahead. So on the day of the deadline, I do not have to sit in front of a blank screen, with a blank look on my face, and scream at Shirley, “Help me here! I don’t have a thing to write about!”
Happy New Year to you and yours!

Later,
Dean

WATFORD CITY WEATHER