SO, HAPPY NEW YEAR 2020 & RESOLVE TO ...?

EDITION OF TUESDAY, DEC. 31, 2019/WEDNESDAY, JAN. 1, 2020 [PetPowellPress] It feels like it was only a few days ago — maybe less — that my HappyNewYearSpouse Martha and I put our dogs into Martha’s car — appropriately a Rover (Range Rover she bought with PetPowell Petsitting profits) — and rolled toward downtown Dallas.
That was New Year’s Eve in 1999. [That photo is Nicki and rescued puppy Annie about six years later.] But, as Y2K approached we spent the evening with our dogs. The cats — Bob, Lucy, Benchley, Spike and Cyril were on their own at home -- nobody parties like housecats.
Martha drove us (I was in the backseat with several dogs, and Hammy the Great Dane mix was riding shotgun -- that's him in HIS chair a few years later) down to the Oak Cliff side of the Trinity River — away from the scary sounds but close enough to watch the fireworks lighting up that part of town and the man-made river channel.
We had Nicki the little white and black long-haired mix with the curly tail and perpetual smile — our first adopted dog in our marriage. Also, we had Hammy the Dane Mix, Cosmo the Handsome Short Black Hefty Dog (he's on the left with our rescued Chihuahua Rosie years later), Baby Jane Doe the Shepherd Mix, Belle Star Carmelita Del Vera Cruz, i.e., Vera the Chihuahua... That is a photo of Baby Jane Doe (found at a bus stop when she was a puppy) and Vera (adopted from a rescue group Martha was working with). They're waiting for the U.S. Mail carrier. Too bad you can't photograph barking decibels.
Yeah, that's Inky, the Cocker Laureate of Texas in his "I've got a big lapping tongue" pose and, on the right, his Pose of Nobility.
We also had the adorable beardedesqhe Schnauzer (maybe) mix, Claire the Beautiful Black-coated girl with white highlights. 
The funny thing about Claire was she loved jumping into people’s laps — not while they were sitting but while they were standing and talking. “SURPRISE! CATCH ME!” said the 50-pound dog.
We don’t know where she learned that.
Like all our dogs and cats, she was a rescue and a genuine benefit to the planet.
And that brings us to New Year’s Day 2020. Can it already be here?
What are we to do as we look at 2020? Forgive all advertisers who promise to give us 2020 focus in the new year? We’re gonna get pretty tired of “2020” advertising by next New Year’s Eve. “The Presidential Candidate with vision for 2020.” See?
Speaking of things to get tired of, we make resolutions and about a week to 10 days from now we’ll be fed up with trying to keep them. So, what we should do is make a list of Easily Kept New Year’s Resolutions.
Try these:
Every two weeks I will intentionally forget that 2020 is an election year and buy a full order of nachos. (Therapeutic in our time, don’t ya think?)

I will recognize that there is a difference between culture and civilization, i.e., culture thrives and civilization crumbles. Well, maybe not crumbles, but the concept gives you something to think about as you lay awake wondering what all the presidential politicians are aiming for in 2020.

OK, let’s get into our real selves:
I resolve to...

—listen to more Carly Simon songs.
—listen to more Arlo Guthrie songs.
—listen to more songs by Joanie Mitchell, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and Jackson Browne and to eternally swear my Texas allegiance to Willie Nelson.
—refer to the last century as “Back in the 1900s.” That one’s from my son Bret who says that a hundred years ago people were referring to “back in the 1800s,’ so it’s time for us to use “1900s” for 20th century references.

—name my next rescued feral tomcat “Will Feral.” That one’s from my son Bart who has a quick wit. He has teenagers so he needs a quick wit. A quick wit and a quick wallet. He and Bret were once my teenagers, so I know the burden on a wallet.
—to not buy another house with old-growth trees — we did that this time and our arbor expert says it’s time to cut most of them down. Could be 100 years old or thereabouts — yep, from the 1900s and a bit costly by now.
— exercise with more enthusiasm than I had for exercise in 2019 or the entire 1900s.

— pick up our cats and dogs every day and cuddle them and let them know how much I love them.
— sweetly hold the hand of my bride — married her back in the 1900s, you know — and tell her how much she means to me because she’s literate, articulate, an animal advocate and rescuer, loves my kids and the grandkids and she makes the best pies, cookies and cakes that should never be eaten by a guy who has resolved to exercise more in 2020.

— write more and write better and write with love — after all, I’ve been writing since back in the 1900s.

— sell more fiction and get movie contracts and quit worrying about winning Lotto Texas which I started playing back in the 1900s.
— no longer think about the amount of money I’ve wasted on Lotto Texas since back in the 1900s.

— remember the people I’ve loved and do something in their honor. Like I may buy my funspouse Martha some extra Lotto Texas tickets — that would NOT be wasted money in any century.
Yeah, resolutions get downright personal. Good luck with yours, be kind to animals and resolve to support tougher cruelty laws that put villains who abuse people and animals into the slammer. Make ‘em wish they were back in the unenlightened 1900s.
Now, with this guidance, I urge you to do one more thing: HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR! It’s there waiting on you!
—- Offer your resolutions or your objections by clicking on ‘comment’ below or by emailing [email protected] where I swear I resolve to open every letter and take under consideration the suggested lucky Lotto Texas numbers. —-