Archive: Opinions

I think a lot of people get almost to the end of whatever they are working on and have to push themselves hard to finish it.  I think it is because the end is in sight and you just think, why can't I be done now?  Some people never finish projects.  Others do, but it's a struggle to get the last bit done.  I am in the latter category.

And I find myself in a conundrum.  Starting today I begin working on next week's issue.  It is the last issue of 2012, after which I get a short break.  And I have to say I am asking myself why can't today's issue be the last one of the year?  Wouldn't it be great if I could relax next week?

There are a lot of excuses I could use.  This year's really fabulous excuse is that the world is supposed to end next Friday.  So why should I spend my whole week slaving over the keyboard, attending events, and editing an issue when everyone is going to be gone the day it is supposed to come out?

Some lottery winners say they are not going to quit their job or live anything other than their normal life.  I guess I'm like that, because, of course, I am going to work on next Friday's issue.  In some ways I feel pressure to make it a good one, since it caps 2012 for the newspaper.  But oh boy! am I going to be bummed out if the world really is destroyed.  Then again, maybe the last issue ever before the world ends is a lot of pressure to make it good...

Just in case, I am going to avoid vacuuming next week, or any chores I can get away without doing.  I am going to catch up on a series of books I've been reading so I will know how it ends before I do.  I am not going to worry about eating sweets this week, just in case it doesn't matter.  And if it were warmer there would be no way I would mow the lawn!  But it's not, so that's a gimmee.

I sometimes say I am a big fan of global warming, because I love the mild winter we had last year, and that I hope for this year.  I guess I can say that an apocalypse also would have its perks.  Aside from all those chores I could avoid, it would get rid of terrorists, spammers, too-cute pictures of babies and kittens on Facebook, Fucillo Auto Mall commercials, telemarketers, people who talk on their phones in restaurants, and any more Chipmunks movies.

I guess that makes me a glass-half-full guy.  There are so many things I could have done next week, but have no intention of doing, just in case.  It's kind of like getting the New Year early.  All those resolutions you end up not fulfilling... I'm going to work really really hard to not fulfill them in the coming week.

The bad news?  If the world doesn't really end I'm going to have to do twice as much to catch up.  Or not... maybe the world will end in two weeks instead.  People who predict the end of the world are a lot like TV weathermen.  They're wrong a lot.

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