Resolute in my resolutions

Here we are well in to 2009. Happy New Year btw. 2008 went by awfully quick but it was by and large a pretty sweet year. I spent nearly half of it unemployed. I spent nearly all of it with a torn ACL but tried hard to let that not affect what I did with my leisure. It was a bad year for blogging. Looking back I was pretty god damn lazy with posting and content (as Dan rightly pointed out at the end of the year). While getting ready for the countdown at the party we went to, I thought about what I could do for 2009 resolutions. I don't make all those bullshit get-in-shape self-promises I know I'm not going to fulfill. Here was what I came up with:

1. 5000 VMT. The average car owner drives 12,000 miles. That's ridiculous, unsustainable and can't continue into a future of depleting fossil fuels. (I hope I have made my thoughts on that crystal clear over the last 4 years!) I won't put more than 5,000 miles on my car this year. That's 400 miles/month or 100/miles a week, roughly. I'll track them on a spreadsheet and everything. As of 1 January, 2009 there was 184,050 miles on my car. When 31 December, 2009 rolls around I should have less than 189,050 on it (if it even lasts that long!).

2. PotW. Picture of the day. I got this from someone else, who's friend takes at least one picture every day. I'm not going to be that gung-ho about it and probably knock it back to a picture of the week. I have a nice camera, and will be getting a better lens so there is no reason not to let it sit under my bed. This is a good reason to get it out and use it!

3. Limit the # of flights I take. There are a few places I'd like to travel to this year (L.A., London, Oregon?). I know a few years back I took over 25 flights in an 18 month period. This is also something that is not sustainable and won't be able to continue into the future ala resolution 1. I've heard both good and bad about long distance train service in the US but it can't be any worse than the Ghan in Centralia. And I think I can get a coupon for the daily out to Seattle with companion fares.

4. Fix my knee. Doable with my knewly acquired health insurnace.

5. Expand my garden to grow a good portion of food during the 2009 growing season. The only thing that really worked out last year was basil (which remains as frozen pesto and a slowly dying plant in the kitchen) and jalapenos with absolutely no heat to them and tiny, funny shaped onions. It was a steep learning curve in extremely poor soils with lots of rodents attacking my small garden at night. This year I will try my hand at square foot gardening, planter boxes for herbs, peppers and other small plants and a few stalks of corn.

A very low Gooseberry River. Taken from the Superior Hiking Trail bridge. September 2008. You can see the storm coming in from the West. It rained on us about an hour later as we hiked down to the visitor center for water and electricity.