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Sunday, January 5, 2014

Learning from mistakes

My last day of vacation. Did I say that right? Vay-kay-shun.
What got done? A little leaf raking, more than a few chores, a New Years Eve party and two chapters for Crossing Paths. Those are just the highlights, of course. My limbs still fall asleep from time to time, but that became less frequent as I healed from my usual exertions. Tomorrow it'll be back to the abuse and strain of my job.
Most people make resolutions for the new year, not me. Instead, I looked back and asked myself; 'Did I learn anything?' I learned how to make beer. In fact, I'm drinking one of my mistakes now. The last batch I made was fantastic, but the house smelled from the fermentation process and the girls asked I make this batch in the garage. That was fair enough, I thought. A cold front came in the day after I made this current batch. This killed any yeast in the beer and prevented alcohol forming. Basically, I wound up with two cases of non-alcoholic beer. At the New Years Eve party I was able to get rid of most of it. Lesson learned.
I figured out some new ways to streamline the budget by getting rid of our cable provider and the land line into the house.
Last summer I put on my plumber hat and took apart my shower and reworked the copper pipes. Interesting, but not enough to make me want to change careers. This morning I did my carpenter impersonation and set up a basketball hoop over my garage for the girls. It's not regulation height, but that's what they wanted. I also set up a tree house earlier in the year. Right now it's more of a place for the squirrels to tease the dog, but it's a start.
But did I learn anything?
Certainly, I made mistakes. Hopefully, I've learned from them. If truth be told, there were several ways to make mistakes, I happened to find two or three different ways to go about it. Of course that's all in how you define mistakes,too.
In order to be old and wise, you have to start off young and stupid. By my reckoning, I'm halfway there. Sheer genius occasionally punctuated with moments of amazing idiocy. That pretty much sums up this year. Good thing I'm not taking this personally. 
For the record: I take life seriously, I don't take myself seriously. That's a whole lot easier on the blood pressure.

 

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