{"id":659,"date":"2009-12-31T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-31T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=659"},"modified":"2009-12-31T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-31T09:00:00","slug":"resolving-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=659","title":{"rendered":"Resolving"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family:verdana;\">As 2009 draws to a close, I reflect on the year and think about the coming year.  Who I am, who I want to be, what I want to do, and how I will execute these goals.  My personal goals are not quite &#8220;new years resolutions.&#8221;  I don&#8217;t believe in making public statements that are not achievable, or not consistent with who I am.<\/p>\n<p>I reviewed my &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/bootedharleydude.blogspot.com\/2008\/12\/resolving.html\">Resolving<\/a>&#8221; post from last year, and I can say that I achieved most of what I said I would do.  I will continue with more of the same:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Caring for my partner, family, and friends by lending a hand, giving a call and paying attention, and sending all those birthday cards.  In 2009, I sent 200+ cards and anticipate the same in 2010.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Sharing a smile, even with people I don&#8217;t know.  A smile may be the only good thing that happened to someone, so I resolve to continue to smile often in both a physical manner, as well as with my words.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Making lemonade when life serves you lemons.  I had a rough year in part of my life, and I resolve to move forward, held held high, and accept and appreciate the support I get from those who care for me.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Trying to take time to have more fun, including riding my Harley with my club, and continuing to practice my Italian with my Bocci buddies, among other things.  I wish I didn&#8217;t have to &#8220;schedule&#8221; fun, but if I didn&#8217;t work at carving out time to go ride, play Bocci, visit my family, and celebrate life, I would be bogged down with chores, work, and feel burdened.  My burdens are lifted when I take time to enjoy, to smile, to laugh, to share, and to contribute to the welfare of my friends and neighbors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Continue to love and care for the man who means the world to me, who accepts me for who I am, with all of my faults, foibles, and klutziness.  My beloved partner deserves nothing but my TLC, as he returns his to me.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Continuing with my community service, and supporting good people to run for office in our local elections, stepping down from my own.  It&#8217;s time for me to take a break!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Show those that I love that I love them, each and every day.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Anything I didn&#8217;t do that I said I would in 2009?<\/p>\n<p>Yep:  I didn&#8217;t build that gazebo in the back yard.  Gazebo-building took a back seat to reflooring our upstairs hallway with hardwood.  Man, that took a LONG time.<\/p>\n<p>Anything new for 2010?<\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t say this last year, but I should have:  I will continue to follow the example set for me by my best friend, AZ, as well as thoughtful and caring friends with whom I exchange email regularly (<i>in alpha order<\/i>) Bama, Brian, Clay, Derrell, Eugene, Kelly, Kevin, Paul, Sue, &#8230; and more.  I hate naming names because inevitably I&#8217;ll forget someone.  If I have, please pardon me!)  These people are wonderful, thoughtful, insightful, caring human beings who mean a lot to me.  The example they set by what they do and how to they do it is one that I will continue to try to follow.<\/p>\n<p>More new things for 2010?  Well, some new leathers are making their way into my motorcycle gear.  I&#8217;ll share about growing and changing focus from fetish to function as I continue my journey in life.  New boots?  Well&#8230; probably.  I have my eye on some boots that I don&#8217;t have and would like to have, so when my boot fund is adequately financed, I&#8217;ll make the move.  Declutter?  My partner is King of &#8220;getting rid of stuff&#8221; and I may just help out.  Oh, and I&#8217;ll <i>try to<\/i> relax and just chill out; kick my boots up in the hammock and watch the world of the animal antics in our back yard park.  Just sittin&#8217; and chillin&#8217; is very hard for me to do, due to what my twin brother calls my obsession with acting like &#8220;Taz&#8221; in the Looney Tunes cartoons.  (giggle)   <i>It&#8217;s really my Type A personality.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>I would love to take a long, long ride on my Harley with people who want to stop and smell the roses.  About 200 &#8211; 400 miles per day is do-able.  More than that, I just get too tired and it&#8217;s no longer fun to ride.  I hope I can find some buddies who want to take a road trip with me for a week or two, perhaps north to the Canadian Maritimes.  That has been a long-term desire.  Having ridden a Harley in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, I know what such a trip can be like.  I wish my partner could join me, but due to his disability, he can&#8217;t.  But now that I own a touring class Harley, it&#8217;s time to take such a trip on my own bike, if only I could find a few people who don&#8217;t want to ride long 15-hour days and drink all night.<\/p>\n<p>Are there places to which I would like to travel?  You bet!  But travel beyond the US or Canada is not in the financial picture for me due to the devalued US Dollar.  I just can&#8217;t afford it.  Within the U.S., I would love to return to visit my old stomping grounds in Los Angeles, my favourite City By The Bay (San Francisco), or rent a bike and go riding through Zion National Park.  Better yet, have my buddy Clay take me to the Calgary Stampede with all those cowboys!  Woof!<\/p>\n<p>Overall, I resolve to continue my life&#8217;s journey by sharing joy, loving life, extending a helping hand, supporting my lovely aunt through her 95th year, caring for my partner, doing a good job at work, having some fun, but most of all, taking action.  It&#8217;s one thing to talk about it.  It&#8217;s quite something else to do it.  That&#8217;s my goal:  do it, and with a huge smile on my face.  (And in boots and leather, too!)<\/p>\n<p>May you have a wonderful 2010.  Happy New Year!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As 2009 draws to a close, I reflect on the year and think about the coming year. Who I am, who I want to be, what I want to do, and how I will execute these goals. My personal goals &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=659\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-life"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}