The Key To Having A Good Year

By .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Wednesday - January 10, 2007

E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS

| Share

Del.icio.us

If the last couple of days are any indication as to how my 2007 is going to be, then I might as well stay in bed for the rest of the year. Well, I am grateful that my family is healthy and that we live a pretty good life. Still, I continue to get into trouble that seems to place my ego in serious jeopardy.

Besides all the usual annual seemingly futile resolutions, I made one that I felt was totally enforceable. I committed our family to conserving energy. I meant energy of all kinds - electricity, batteries and fuel. I mean, I was already doing it anyway, so I formalized the pledge.

I drove my family crazy the first 48 hours after 12:01 a.m. on 1/1/07. I constantly reminded everyone to turn off lights, appliances and TVs. By day three of 2007, my family members were ready to kill me, including my mom. I guess that morning I set off the “capper” with my wife.

My biggest pet peeve of 2006 was that no one was putting the cordless phone back in its cradle/charging station. Last year, we totally drained the batteries on those things because of that, which left us with no land line to make phone calls.

I was just about to leave for work when I found the phone off the cradle. I ranted for three minutes on why no one could do the simple task of replacing the phone. That’s when I found out my wife was responsible. I kind-of lectured her on setting an example for the kids.

As I drove to work, I had a couple of trash bags in the back of my truck because there were no trash collections over the last two holidays. I thought I might sneak them into our compactor at work. One of the bags looked as though it was going to fall out, so I pulled over on the roadside.

It would take me a second so I left the engine running, but out of habit, I locked the door as I slammed it shut. I was now locked out of my running truck. Besides being stupid as a brick, I now had to call my wife and ask her to bring me the spare key. There was heck to pay and I owed big.

When I called her on my cell phone, she was genuinely concerned and said she would be there as soon as she could. When she arrived, she said nothing, just merely handed me the key and gave me a kiss goodbye. I was relieved that she didn’t say anything about what I did. Just as she reached her car, she turned around and said, “I guess this is your contribution to saving gas?”