Waiting for Speedway Fowler

Happy New Year.

Old habits die hard, and if you’re like me, the New Year starts for you in September.

This goes back to when I was a kid. September was when the school year started, with new classes and new clothes and a new schedule and even new TV shows. It always made more sense to me to think of September as the new year, rather than January. After all… how different is your January compared to your December or your February? They’re all cold, gray and long. Take out the holidays and they’re virtually indistinguishable from one another.

But September… September is when all things are new again. When you gather your resources and draw up your agenda for the year, for the slow cruise down through Fall into the inevitable submergence into the winter months. September is for assessing your situation before battening down the hatches in late October. September is the last full month before the furnace kicks on. And that old feeling gets reinforced when your kids become school-age, and you start going through the old routines once again.

So, this September, I’m making a few New Year’s resolutions:

I resolve to make my patented secret-recipe Down East Baked Beans more often than once a year.

I resolve to make a boiled dinner this month. It’s a great meal… why limit it to March?

I resolve to make it a habit to know how much money I have at all times and where it is. And this with a teenager in the house. Can’t you just smell the comedy?

I resolve to spend less and save more. Does that make me anti-American?

I resolve not to get a tattoo like all those other worthless poseurs out there. Unless I’ve had one beer too many and Pepi puts me up to it.

I resolve to buy Season 1 of “Maverick” on DVD the moment they release it… if they ever release it.

I resolve to learn how to take decent black and white photos, which likely means buying Greg Munroe several beers. So be it.

Less High Fructose Corn Syrup.

More Horny Goat Weed. I have no idea if it’s a good supplement to one’s diet. I just like typing “Horny Goat Weed”.

I resolve to drive a bucket of balls and spend at least one morning surf-casting.

And once again this Fall, I resolve to avoid listening to Jim Rome on the radio.

That one’s actually pretty easy to keep.