A New Year in search of a resolution

Beech Fork Lake, home of a local triathlon. Half a mile of swimming, uphill both ways. Image courtesy of wikipedia.

First of all, a happy New Year to one and all. Here's hoping 2009 ends better than it started.

For the last few days, El Cabrero has been blogging about the old year's reading. It so happened that the last book of the year was a recorded version of The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs. It was a diverting true story of a man who resolved to read the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica and finished it in slightly less than one year.

I was impressed and have to admit being drawn to trying things like that, but I'll probably pass on that one as a New Year's resolution.

I was blissfully resolution-free for 2009 until the phone rang yesterday. It was my daughter, La Cabrita, with another brilliant idea. She's the same one who bugged me until I took her to see the ball drop in Times Square 10 years ago when she was a teenager. It was a big memory for her, but I mostly recall standing boxed in a crowd of strangers for hours in the cold and not being able to find a bathroom...

"Do you remember that triathlon thing you did a while back?," she asked. I knew the conversation would be down hill from there.

"Yeahhh....," I said cautiously. I was already getting a bad feeling about the call.

"Let's do it this year!"

I'm not sure where her sudden burst of jockiness came from lately. First karate and now this. I tried to explain how hard it would be and how much training would be involved, especially for aquatically challenged people such as ourselves, but she was not deterred. Between her type I diabetes and my dead heart and blown knee this has all the signs of Really Stupid Idea.

Game on.

Stay tuned.

My advice for you, Gentle Reader: be careful about answering the phone today.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED