The New Year
Questions from Sunday Brunch.

1) What are your New Year's resolutions for 2005?

I resolve to spend quiet time and prayer time addressing my future.

Last year I had a major life change - see Question 2. This year I need to set some goals and strategies for my remaining years.

Then I have the more traditional type of resolutions. Here are some resolutions that I'm likely to keep:

• Track our finances carefully to determine if we are going to need additional income.
  
• Continue building a notebook of healthy recipes that we both enjoy.
  
• Maintain friendships by keeping in contact with my favorite friends. (Introverts such as myself need to work at remembering to do this.)
  
• Knit birthday socks for all family members who have requested hand knit socks.

Here are some resolutions that I'm not going to make because I'm old enough to know better:

• Workout with weights so I'll be fit for yard work in the spring.
  
• Clean out the basement.
  
• Redecorate the house with emphasis on painting walls and installing new flooring.
  
• Be in bed by eleven and up by seven.

2) Did you make resolutions last year and did you keep them?

At the end of 2003, I become unemployed for the first time in 25 years. Thanks to a generous severance check, I was able to stay home and live the fantasy of having an entire year without having to go to work.

My resolutions for the year were for the sole purpose of allowing myself to accept and enjoy a year without working.

Yes, I kept that promise to myself. 2004 was a wonderful year of transition. A gift from God with the help of Pfizer.

3) What did you do this year on New Year's Eve to celebrate, if anything?

Like the true introverts that we are, we stayed home and read, knit, and played with the dogs.

4) Is there any one thing that you hope happens by next New Year's Day?

Ignoring the obvious answers (peace in the world, cures for all disease, the end of crime, abuse and poverty) I hope for a trip to Idaho to visit my son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter due in April.

5) Describe your most memorable New Year's Eve or New Year's Day.

Y2K.

I worked in Information Technology at Pharmacia. We had spent over a year changing date fields to four characters, coding, testing, and preparing for the millennium change. There was a lot to do.

That Y2K turned out to be a non-event was due to the fact that thousands of competent, conscientious IT professionals worked their butts off during the year prior to the event.

(Oops. I digressed. Having Y2K called a non-event is a pet peeve of mine. Back to answering the question now.)

January 31, 1999 we were excited, nervous, and ready for anything.

Part of the strategy was to shut down all the computers, even the mainframes, during the switchover and then bring computers and systems back up on January 1, 2000 in an orderly way with thorough testing at every step. My only assignment for the night was to stay sober in case I was needed to help in someone else's area.

The business system I was responsible for was scheduled to come up around noon on January 1. And it did. And it worked. I will never forget the welcome sight of 01/01/2000 dates in the data where they should be. It looked so strange to see that 2000. My workmate Russ and I sat in our office and laughed with glee as piece after piece of our system worked without a hitch.