Welcome to July, where you cock your head in disbelief at how half of 2009 has already come and gone. Hopefully we're not still writing 2008 on our checks (hopefully we're not still writing checks) and if you're anything like me, you were writing "2009" all through December of last year just to get on with it. So how are you doing with those new year's resolutions?

I didn't make "New Year's resolutions" this time out, if you'll recall, feeling that the whole idea of "resolving" anything had proved itself inanely unrealistic after all these years. Rather, I crafted a list of Ten Big Goals for myself, to be accomplished by 2010, and I remember that I went over them with Mrs. Ditchman on the way home from Christmas (she humored me.) Big Goals! I'm not going to list them here because A) I think they would bore you, B) I would lose gravitas, ambition, and momentum at your mocking me, and C) I don't want to jinx it. I'm about halfway through half of them, a few I haven't even begun, and one is finished/filed/forgotten. That last one I will tell you and it was "run a marathon" but that's the free gimme I put on the list every year so that I can feel like I at least did something. It's funny to think that "run a marathon" is the easy one, but that's the kind of bold, stop-at-nothing, go-getter I am.

The other goals are in a mire, bogged down and repressed under the weight of last year's goals. (It would have been easier to just pick ten marathons.) To be completely honest, I think last year's goals are this year's goals, but who's counting? Goals are goals. This year's good idea is next year's project which is a goal for 2011 but really won't be accomplished until 2012. I'll keep that in mind next time I have a great idea: add three years to the date of execution. I say "execution" because at that rate, any good idea should just be killed off to avoid the spousal nagging.

Or, just make a million dollars and pay someone else to take care of it. Make a million dollars! I never will, and I know this because that was a goal of mine I put off years ago.

Speaking of making millions... I was supposed to be up with the concrete guys this morning but the concrete guys have abandoned me altogether and today I dig on my own time. It will be hot. That's the thing about being in the shade business -you're always working in the sun.


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