Year in Review

Siding's progressing better than I anticipated

New door all painted up

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Well, not really. Other than the barn crashing down, it was a pretty damn good year. I managed to take the trip of a lifetime when I went to Italy, health is good enough that I can work on the barn, I've got a job, friends and family. All things considered, doing A-Okay.
The barn obviously has taken up a lot of my time and kept me from getting other things done, but I almost made my goal of reading 50 books. I've got 47 - maybe 48- by midnight. Total pages a little over 12,000. That  plus a daily newspaper and a host of magazines adds up to a whole lot of reading. The book list was mostly fiction stuff. I read a dozen by Robert Parker, a couple of John Grisham and a couple classics like The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. I also skimmed a few woodworking and technical books but didn't add them to the list. So even if I didn't get a lot done, I'm a well read slug anyway.

So the year was full of projects, I'm another year older and closing in on retirement. What's on the agenda for 2012, you ask? Probably more of the same. It's about all I know. Try to get a few more things done, as in finished. I've got quite a few projects I'd like to start but I'm going to try and exercise a little willpower and put them off. The official list of big projects looks like this, however:

Finish the barn
Finish the Rickati
Finish the Kaw 900
Finish the boat

Everything else will be by fits and starts, whatever interests me and whatever I can't postpone. The only resolutions I'm making: drink more water and not eat so much junk in the evenings. It's not that I couldn't come up with a few more or, perhaps, more important ones, but might as well be realistic. I'll close out the year with a quote from book 48 on the list, Stuntman by Hall Needham. Seems custom tailored for a guy like me.

When a job is once begun,
Never leave it 'til it's done.
Be it great
or be it small,
Do it well
Or not at all.

Wishing you all the best for the New Year.