As December breezes past and the new year is almost upon us once again I feel a little in dismay about the year to come. With every passing year the time seems to go just that much faster, and now, as I reflect, the past few years seem to be somewhat of a blur. I feel that I have been so incredibly busy that I look in the mirror and find, all of a sudden, I have aged overnight.
To be honest, during this time of year, when everyone is pondering what they will chose to change about themselves or their lifestyle for their new year’s resolutions, I have not pondered that at all.
For the most part, every year at this time, I just reflect on what I have accomplished this year, and what I can work on for next year. I do not want to kid myself into thinking I can go to the gym and lose the right amount of weight, miraculously start eating totally healthy or change who I am in the new year. First of all, if I do not have time to do those things right now, so I ask myself; will I really have time to change this next year?
More than likely not, but there are certain aspects I recall that in time I would like to identify and try to better myself. My life, at this moment, is still a type of whirlwind swirling around me like a tornado, with three young children and a full-time career, time is constantly limited. Throughout the past six months, while working I have been able to identify the areas in my own life that could stand some improving.
One thing that always sticks out in my mind as an area in my life I need to address more often, is the time I spend with my children. Spending time is one thing, but spending quality time is another. Between work, daily living and dividing the day between three children; time is not a luxury I often have. I clearly remember someone saying at a conference just months ago “ it is not the quantity of time you spend with your children, it’s the quality of time you spend with your children.” And these are true words of wisdom to me.
So one thing I chose to try and better for my life this year will be just that, to read to my children more often, to sit on the floor and play Barbies with my daughter more often, to simply cuddle with the baby or find more creative ways to spend my days with my kids and to cherish them for who they are and never take for granted what they mean to me.
Life is not about money or how many hours you work in a day, life is about spending time with the people you love and since the days pass so quickly my mission this year is to relax, slow down and enjoy my children being young and needing me to lean on.

The abandoned New Year’s resolution train has officially been ridden to the max, and I will no longer abide.

Each year I can depend on completely tanking my resolutions, succeeding with the same assurance of the sun coming up and me having cakes on the griddle (thank God I’m a country boy). Why? Because I don’t take my own advice – which is to never play a game you know you can’t win. And I know I’m not alone in the New Years loser’s column – unless your counting the solo thumb wrestling matches I’ve attempted to swear off in consecutive years since Jan. 1, 2003 (.507 career winning percentage).

So assuming most of us fail, why make resolutions? It’s because we think we have to. More specifically, we think we have to make resolutions in some life changing, get-ourselves-out-of-a-rut kind of way – and we are really just lying to ourselves. Not to say no one should resolve to better their lives in the new year, maybe just reset the bar a little bit when doing so – alter a few rules of the game in your favor from the get-go. I mean whoever said, “new year: new person.” How about trying on this no-brainer, “new year: new underwear.”

I can hear you now, you’re saying “avoiding failure is not the answer, it’s just the solution given by those with negative attitudes.” Au contraire! Avoiding failure is positive, and you have to admit, it even sounds positive.

“What’s on the agenda today, McGuire?” the boss might ask.

“When I get back from lunch I plan on avoiding failure, after that I might send a fax – maybe make some phone calls.”

Which at that time my boss would follow-up with a hearty, “Atta boy, Mike.”
Talk is cheap however, and it only works on Fridays; we need to practice some real-life avoiding/bettering.

There are a number of ways you can upgrade yourself without really changing at all (very little at the most).

For beginners fresh off of last year’s disappointment bus, I recommend baby steps. Start simple, make this year’s resolution a sure fire bet, an in-the-bank winner. For example, resolve to do your laundry, feed your cat, make your bed, or consider giving that college loan payment a shot (don’t get carried away). There’s no sense trying to fix the world when you’ve got plenty of problems in the village, if you know what I’m saying. Trust me, a few of those cup-cake personal victories and you’ll be back on the fast track to Complacency Spas Hotel & Casino, with not a care in the world.

If your quitting skills are more advanced, I suggest the “do everything opposite” approach, made famous by George Costanza from Seinfeld. You’re already hardened by some bad beats, so why not take it all the way – what have you got to lose? If you stink at trying to do the right thing, maybe you’ll stink at trying to do the wrong thing too. If not, at least you’ll know you’re good at something.

Evening Sun New Year’s Resolutions
By Jessica Lewis
Sun Staff Writer
As the last week of December begins, one question keeps entering my mind; what will be this year’s New Year’s resolution. Every year I, along with millions of others, create arbitrary and often easily forgotten resolutions that we stick to for a few weeks before moving on to other tasks. This year, I want to set a resolution that is worth keeping,
There are always the obvious resolutions; to be more organized, to lose those pounds that we packed on during the holiday season, to rid ourselves of bad habits, but these are the types of resolutions that people keep for a matter of weeks, and then discard like yesterday’s trash.
This year I have several resolutions. I resolve to be more environmentally conscious. If this winter, with it’s mid-forty degree temperatures and lack of considerable snow fall, has made me aware of anything, it is that the climate has changed, and the end results may not be as favorable as they now seem. I enjoy not having to shovel the drive way and wade through the snow drifts as much as the next person, but I’m becoming increasingly aware that something about this winter weather is a little strange.
As part of my New Year’s resolution, I am going to try to do more for the environment. I will recycle more, including batteries, despite the fact that it requires twice the effort, and I will try to limit the amount of frivolous trips I make in my car. I know my actions won’t be enough to change the course of events for the planet, but at least I will know I did my best.
The rest of my resolution is much more subjective. It involves simply being a better person. Sometimes I find myself, as I’m sure many do, thinking of my own hardships in life, and feeling sorry for myself. This year I will try to remember the people who are less fortunate than myself, and instead of wasting time taking pity on myself, I hope to find the time to help others. Volunteering is such a kind and ambitious undertaking. It’s always difficult to try to find the time to give, but I hope this year I will be able to do just that. Perhaps I can forgo some of my less meaningful activities; give up a day of shopping or visiting with my friends to help individuals who need it.

As Christmas approaches I find myself thinking about the Christmas’s I spent as a child and it is a spirited recollection of Santa, family and of course the presents. It seemed Christmas would never come and when it did it was the best time of year.
The snow would be falling and the sense of magic would be in the air. Every year was similar but all were just exciting. Tossing and turning in my bed the night before I would try to listen for reindeer huffs on the roof and Santa’s jolly soul coming in the front door. The cookies and carrots would be waiting and although I would try so hard to keep my eyes open I would soon wake up and flee from my bed with Christmas spirit.
My parents in the next room over would be awakened by screams and giggles that it was Christmas and everyone needed to get up at that very second. My dad, groggy and half awake would recommend my sister and I go get him orange juice but we need not touch anything under the tree. We would bounce down the stairs to find a mountain of presents awaiting for us and have to hold back our initial reaction to go hog wild and head for the kitchen. We would bring back his juice and beg him to get up.
My parents as I think back must have thought the whole morning out before we awoke and thought it may be funny to just see how long we would last until we got too anxious to stand it anymore and dive under the tree. Not only did my dad need juice he also would need to drive to the photo studio he owned across town and pick up the video camera before we could open anything.
He would get the camera and come home and then proceeded to spend more time to set it all up. As he got the camera ready my sister and I would sit and stare at him from the stairwell with smoke coming from our ears. Finally after the initial Christmas wait we would be allowed to come into the living room and find our stockings. This was our typical morning and now as I look back it is easy to know why now as an adult I am always the first one down the stairs and under the tree.
Although, my kids are still small and do not realize what Christmas really is I strongly believe that even when they do I will beat them to the tree. Now that I am the parent instead of the child Christmas to me is always one of the best times of the year. I dearly hope now that it is my turn to be the parent I will make memories for my kids that they will carry on to their children and they too will remember their Christmas past.

How are you doing?

Good, that’s good.

How am I doing?

How nice of you to ask.

I am fine – especially now that I’m off the road, where my fellow motorists nearly parked me in that great garage in the sky on several different occasions this past weekend.

Holy cow! You sand-baggin free-wheelers need to learn to apply the breaks, along with some gold bond (and hopefully cool off that rash that’s got everybody so chaffed behind the wheel these days).

Everybody was weaving and winding, high-beaming and blinding; speeding and cheating; white knuckled and possibly reading – with the pedal through the floor gunning right for me.

I don’t think I was doing anything wrong, other than driving my trusty gray squirrel (a 1992 pewter GEO Prism that’s worse for the ware). In fact, I happen to think I’m a pretty good wheelman, who has a great deal of respect for my fellow wheelpeople, with a very good and well-defined understanding of the importance of good wheelmanship.

But many others obviously don’t. So that being the case, why do we even bother with the pleasantries and niceties of life outside of the car? Why should we care for civility in general – like family ties, friendships, greetings, compliments, and hand shakes – if we are just going to try and exterminate each other the second we start up the engines?

Who hasn’t seen this before:

“It was great working with you today Bill. See you tomorrow.”

“You too, Marty. Hey, thanks for being such a great friend. Tell Kelly and the kids I said hello.”

Then they get into their cars an ram on the interstate like two mountain goats, ready to crush each others’ skulls for no good reason other than that’s their natural instinct.

I’d rather that you give me a hockey-fight wedgie (up and over) and say “Your shirt made me do that,” than say with a smile, “That’s a sweet mock-turtle neck,” and then later on give me the old “McDonough Meltdown” into a guard rail somewhere.

We have got all our positive and negative energy directed in the wrong places. Let’s be kind on the road, and wretched everywhere else. In December, let’s decorate the road with Holiday lights and cheer. We’ll even slow our vehicles to trade Christmas presents with each other by way of a light toss.

During normal days on the road, carefully drive and write or mouth messages to each other that say “How do you do,” “Nice Weather, Huh?” or “I like your style.”

And we’ll fight and riot in the streets.

At, going to, and coming from work we will battle. In the malls we will rumble. At the movies our cell phones will ring, at our kids little league games we will bleed (bad examples).

We will put our lives at risk without conscience or care.

And we will get back into our cars and be thankful for where we live, and all our blessings.

Merry Christmas. I will break check you.

The holidays from my childhood were always filled with excitement and wonder. My sisters and I would be so excited on Christmas Eve, that we would spend the whole day trying to make time go faster, or trying to tire ourselves out. The sooner we went to sleep, the sooner Santa Claus would come.

We would dive eagerly into our beds at 7 p.m. and lie there for most of the night, unable to sleep. We would wake up at 4 a.m. every year, and Dad would tell us to go back to sleep, even though he was every bit as excited as us. It took many years before we caught on, finally realizing that the loud noise that always woke us up at 4 a.m. was my dad, stomping around in his bedroom, with the intent to wake up his anxious children.

We were never expected to get dressed or have breakfast before the presents were opened. Once everyone was gathered around the tree, presents were handed out and we oohed and aahed over each and every one. Hand made Care Bears, the only thing my mother was ever able to sew, or games or Barbies. We would spend the morning playing together, while Mom cooked the Christmas dinner.

Many years have passed since my four sisters and I all crowded into one bedroom, a holiday tradition, to pass Christmas Eve by telling stories and giggling through half the night. I think of our excitement and wonder and can’t help but miss the innocence of our youth and the closeness of five little girls, camping out in one room to enjoy the excitement of Christmas Eve together.

Common ways people shop
The procrastinating shopper.. My dad is what is known as a procrastinating shopper. He would go into the stores on Christmas eve and grab the nearest salesperson and require their assistance in his shopping extravaganza. The way my dad shopped was a little unconventional to say the least. He would look around the store and the mannequins and the outfits hanging, spot one he liked and say
“ Well I think I will take that outfit there and I need a medium shirt……”
After rattling the sizes for each piece of the outfit he would stand back and wait for the salesperson to oblige. I believe this was the only way he knew how to do it and I am unsure if he realized the outfits were not hung together as outfits on the racks and these sales people had to search long and hard to get all the pieces together.
He would pick outfit after outfit until he felt he had enough and always insisted on wrapping the gifts himself, he is a perfectionist as well and wrapping is a specialty.

The done in February shopper….. There are some folks who head back to the stores after the new year to grab the deals left over from the holidays. They have in mind what their loved ones may have in mind for next year and buy it all, take it home wrap it up, store it away in a closet and sit back the rest of the year and laugh at everyone else. Yeah I hate those people.

The over-time shopper….These shoppers are not as good as the ones above but yet again these too will sit around come November and laugh at the last minute crowds. This type shops a little here and little there throughout the year picking up things when they see them and by the time thanksgiving is here they are just about done and can relax.

The everything at once shopper….This is me, this is the way I shop. I wait until the beginning part of December to realize oh #*&% Christmas is this month then I compile a list as to what everyone may want. I go to the stores and shop until I am done. Usually it takes two days but once I start I do not stop until everyone is crossed off my list. As long as they have checks next to their name I feel better. I buy, buy, buy then go home and wrap it all and pack it away in a closet.

The returning shopper….Now this kind are the ones that drive employees at the stores to jump off cliffs. These shoppers slowly shop throughout the year and once December approaches they feel the pressure and start randomly buying gifts for people whether it is something the person would like or not. They go home to find they have bought 30 pairs of toe socks, a wrench kit and boots that really wouldn’t fit anyone in the family. After some debate the consumer packs everything back in the car and returns all the items to the store. Not so bad right? Well they continue to do this until after the seventh time returning items they just buy gift cards.

The greedy shopper…. This can be classified as two groups. The people that intend to Christmas shop but fill the carts with items they really just can’t resist. And the people that buy presents for people knowing they are the wrong size, color or just something the receiver would hate wait until the gift is open and isn’t liked, they offer to take it back to the store and in the end no one gets a present because the gift giver kept the money and said “oh well I’ll get them something next year, I really did need the money.” If this is you, should be ashamed at yourself. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE and next time be honest and get them something little or nothing to begin with.

How does going without lights for two hours show that people are against NYRI? It doesn’t.

It shows that they are together.

From 7 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, December 21, STOP NYRI Inc. is urging residents along the 200-mile NYRI route to turn off their home and holiday lights, and demonstrate a collective opposition to the power line, and a collective adherence to community welfare.

I think it’s a great idea, and I’m sure many others do too. But I’m not sure many people will participate. Homeowners living in the line of fire definitely will keep it dark for a couple hours, however, I am generally pessimistic when it comes to everybody else.

It would be awesome to have a black swath eating a hole from Central to Southern New York state – it would be newsworthy. Apathy (a good portion of people don’t care about NYRI), the holiday rush (a good portion of people care about the holidays more than NYRI) and the general addiction to convenience (a good portion of the people care about convenience more than anything, i.e. that is why energy starved areas downstate won’t put up generation plants or power lines in their own backyards, but are willing to Upstate) will keep people keeping their lights on.

Hopefully the darkness will spread beyond the frightful homeowners. Hopefully the light hasn’t spread too much.

The City of Norwich has put together a preliminary budget for the 2007 year. A public hearing will be held on Tuesday night to discuss the proposed budget. Although the City Financial Director Bill Roberts said the tax rate increase had dropped from 38 percent to 5.85 percent, there has been some discussion over the programs that had to be cut to make that possible.

Youth Bureau Director Bob Mason explained at a previous meeting many cuts that he’d had to make to his budget, including cuts to the swimming lessons program, youth bowling at plaza lanes, bus trips, and other youth oriented programs. The total savings of these cuts was reported as $7,944. The amount does not seem like a great deal, especially when the next item under discussion was the purchase of a new copy machine, the cost of which would be $12,000.

I am not debating whether or not the city needs a new copy machine. I am sure that if it is in the budget it is necessary, however, I wonder about the need to make so many cuts to the Youth Bureau, which total such a paltry amount. First Ward Alderman A. Anthony Abraham spoke up, discussing this issue. He stood up for the youth programs, saying the young people in the city deserve our support, and I have to agree. The youth bureau’s budget has been cut almost every year since 2002. Even though Mason found a way to save some of the programs without the funding, I feel that the youth in the city deserve all the opportunities we can give them. As a taxpayer, I would much rather see those tax dollars go to support the youth of the community, than be spent on other endeavors.

The top ten ways to tell Christmas is here
10. Your children think if they are angels from Dec. 1- Dec. 24 their Christmas wishes come true; so they have moved in with grandma for the month.
9. There have been rumors of sleigh jackings for about 2 weeks.
8. The liquor store is busier than the grocery store for an entire month.
7. People often look sad when entering the bank.
6. People gather crying at airport terminals, not to watch people leave but to watch their families come in.
5. There are twice as many fist fights at Wal-Mart than usual.
4. There is a slight decrease of men in red clothes wanting people to sit on their laps.
3. Starting Dec. 1, your parents are noticeably edgy, irritable and a little psychotic.
2. People say ‘Merry Christmas’ then retract that and say ‘Happy Holidays.’
1. And the number one reason it seems like the holidays are getting near: When you go to the store and you have gotten so mad while you were shopping at the pure rudeness and crudeness of others you come home empty handed and have to ice your ankles because you had about 13 carts shoved into you, your hair pulled, your feet ran over and had to wait in one aisle for 20 minutes because people wanted to chat about NOTHING!!!!
Merry Christmas and don’t worry, some health insurances cover emergency holiday counseling services.