I hereby resolve not to resolve, resolutely

I have not blogged for the past few weeks, firstly because of preparing for final exams, which were on 5 December.  I did just fine, thanks.

Secondly, I haven't blogged because I've been a lazy bum.  I've been relaxing (though also dealing with a rather indelicate acute medical problem).  Christmas was lovely, with our daughters, son-in-law, and family friends -- two sisters who live not far away and who have spent Christmas with us for the past few years.

I have been catching up on blog reading today, and found quite a few talking about New Year's Resolutions.  I do not make New Year's Resolutions.  I feel they become too constraining, and I generally break them pretty quickly, anyway.  Also, I have found during my life that goal-setting and plan-making generally go completely awry somewhere along the line.  Life grabs me and sweeps me off in new, different, and unexpected directions.

As I get older -- I will be on Medicare in April, oh, joy -- I make fewer and fewer really long-range plans.  Part of this is because I come from a family that is not known for long life.  My grandparents all were gone by their mid to late 50s.  My father died at 42, my mother at 63, and my brother at 54.  So I have beat almost everyone so far.  How long my luck will hold out is anyone's guess.

My other problem is that I hate routine.  I despise schedules.  I am ill-regimented and not all that well-organized, but being regimented and organized is a drag.  Unfortunately, my husband and I are both of the packrattus accumulatus genus and species.  At our age and generally indolent inclinations, this is unlikely to change.

But I do have a few plans: a book based on my research on St. Augustine, Florida, during the Second Spanish Period.  Graduate school.  Hunting down elusive relatives, such as generations of my Reed family from the early 1800s on back into the 1700s, or my husband's mysterious great-grandfather Samuel Henston Rhoades.

Stay tuned to see how that goes.