Resolution #4: Watch more sunsets and sunrises (Somehow this helps me keep things in perspective).

Resolution #18: Clean the attic (There's 20 years of accumulated stuff up there. Could anyone use a luggage carrier that fits a 1974 Ford station wagon?)

Resolution #26: Listen more, speak less, offer more hugs and less criticism, and live each day as if it's a special gift never to be repeated. It is.

Do you make New Years' resolutions? I don't. Or, at least, I didn't. They make me feel too guilty when I don't keep them. However, this year I've decided to give it a try, and, to hold me accountable, I've decided to put them out here before God and everybody. In 1999, I resolve to . . .

• Write more letters to family and friends (Emails will do).
• Pick up some more computer skills (I'm taking a few short-classes now).
• Hold a '60s-style sock hop with my midlife friends (Here's a resolution I'll probably keep).
• Watch more sunsets and sunrises (Somehow this helps me keep things in perspective).
• Get outdoors at least one hour each day (The indoors world can become too artificial).
• Make contact with at least one old friend with whom I've lost touch.
• Read some old books (I'm thinking about "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo for one).
• Study a historic period with which I'm unfamiliar.
• Ditto for a geographical region.
• Save more money.
• Give away more money.
• Spend more money (Oops. I meant spend it more wisely. Yeah, right.)
• Visit a state in the U.S. I've never seen before. Take time to explore the spots there that tourists normally would miss.
• Visit a place from my past that I haven't seen in years (I'm thinking of the Pecos Wilderness of New Mexico or the little mountain valley where we once lived in northeastern Wyoming).
• Visit a place in Texas that I've never seen before (Among others, I've never been to Big Bend).
• Take more opportunities to enjoy the special places close to home (It's been years since I've taken a leisurely stroll through the museum in Canyon).
• Complete a home improvement project that I've been avoiding (I have several to choose from).
• Clean the attic (There's 20 years of accumulated stuff up there. Could anyone use a luggage carrier that fits a 1974 Ford station wagon?)
• Clean out my closet (OK; leisure suits probably will not make a comeback).
• Keep my office at home more tidy (The guilt is starting to creep in with this one).
• Learn to fly fish (My friend George Biffle has promised to teach me. Maybe I can combine this resolution with the one about visiting the Pecos Wilderness.)
• Spend a weekend alone for self-evaluation, planning and spiritual renewal.
• Write in my journal more consistently (I think my last entry was about this time last year).
• Make fewer promises that I know I can't keep.
• Keep more promises that I know I should keep.
• Listen more, speak less, offer more hugs and less criticism, and live each day as if it's a special gift never to be repeated. It is.