Five days ago at the stroke of midnight and we turned the calendar page moving into the New Year, I was not out painting the town for a change but was at home feeling a little under the weather. While kicked back with the herd watching a marathon run of a television show, I noticed the clock had already moved into the New Year without the normal hint of it's turning by the noise of fireworks.

I stepped out onto the back porch and heard some pops and bangs off in the distance, but nothing close to the extent of previous years welcoming in the New Year. On the norm, the battle of the amateur pyrotechnicians starts about an hour before, and continue through into the early morning hours of January. The lack of fireworks this year caused me some uneasiness, when in the past they would have caused some aggravation after the second or third hour.

Then it dawned on me that I had yet to make a New Year Resolution, I began to wonder what would be a good resolution for me this year. In the past, I have had little luck keeping a resolution made on the whim of the calendar changing. Maybe it’s because I have always made some complex, life altering resolution that even the wisest or most pious man would have a hard time keeping.

Just maybe this year I need one that’s just a little more obtainable like winning the Nobel Peace Prize, thinking a bit more, I came to the conclusion that this should be a decision made after a good night sleep. After a couple of hours of tossing and turning, my mind racing and searching the darkness for an answer to my question, I drifted off to sleep.

I woke up a few hours later, still in need of more sleep and with a headache, the resolution question still on the forefront of my mind. That’s when I decided to sit down with paper and pen, to make a list of my short comings which might help me answer this nagging question. After sitting for about an hour and looking over this piece of paper, all I saw was some odd little doodles.

Ok, this is starting to be a lot like work and since I was on vacation, threw away the non-existent check list even though with the little doodles, I pondered becoming an artist. Short lived idea since most artists, don’t become famous until they die and their called starving for a reason. Maybe that’s it, I could use to lose a little weight but then again, as with the artist idea, I like to eat.

Briefly I thought it would be good to start at making new relationships, but being married, this could and probably would cause problems with the war department and I would lose my bunker in the backyard, which is still under construction. That’s when I remembered a news story from a few years ago, when someone else’s war department caught onto a new relationship and cut off the offending member. Scratch that idea, I kind of like having “Little Ron” around, and I would not have to worry about trying to explain what happened to some cute nurse at the hospital.

Going over my options for a good resolution were fading fast, like to eat no weight loss, like “Little Ron” no new relationships and I like the bunker, again no new relationships. I could use some more church in my life, but I don’t think the NFL will change their schedule; then again I could catch one of those televangelist's while getting ready for the game, on second thought not a good idea, their idea of tithing is well beyond that of my wallets capability.

That’s when it hit me like a bolt of lightning, appropriate I thought for my previous thoughts regarding televangelist's. One definition for resolution refers to cameras and the clarity of a picture, and I headed off to buy a new camera.