New Year...

For some reason, it doesn't feel like a new year. I haven't had any problems writing 2007 on my checks (Okay...I've only written one check). I haven't had any problems writing 2007 on anything requiring a date.

I don't make resolutions. I break them too quick before they dry. I do have goals. Some I've had since I was in my teens. Some since my 20's. Others have hung around as recently as my 30's. (I'm 41 for those of you keeping track.)

One of my goals is to be a better dad. To be more of a good example not only in word but in deed. My kids are good and well adjusted. But I still feel I'm letting them down in someways. As if I've abdicated some responsibilities to others...the school, the church, others. My son is of an age now where I think I really need to be getting him involved in what I do as a husband and father and man. More around-the-house kind of stuff. Like putting up the Christmas lights. Or mowing the lawn. (I did let him use the leaf blower a few weeks back...he was sooo stocked! Power tools will do that to a guy!) Or getting/using my tools when I need them.

Another of my goals is to not screw up at work. (This one I've had since my 20's and 3 jobs ago!) Even after I told them my screw ups, they still hired me and asked me to assume a supervisory position within the company. Lead Pilot at the Redding Base. It came as a bit of shock not that it happened but that it happened so soon. I've always had good administrative skills, good communications skills and good paperwork skills. For some reason, they saw that and moved me into that position. I really only wanted to be a line pilot...go to work, fly, go home, earn check. But working is fun again. The flying is good and the office work breaks up the day. I'm not "in charge" ala the Chief Pilot and Dir. of Operations so I have limited liability and limited authority. Really, just what I should have. God is good when he provides his children with what they need as opposed to what they want.

Because I've always wanted...something else. Not just this but this+that. And God has given me the this+that and I've managed to let it get the best of me.

Another goal is to realize I'll never have it all together. I will never "arrive" so to speak, until I die and shed this mortal coil. I look back at my teens, my 20's, and my 30's and I see growing pains along the way. Good times and bad times. It was the book, "Men in Mid-Life Crisis" that helped show me that there are turning points, milestones, changes that need to take place at certain times but that, in the end, we are continually a work in progress. Some of us progress a little slower than others!

Progessing along,


Eric