I'll start with the resolutions. I have clipped them below as written on the last day of 2002. My comments are just after the point.

• Lose five pounds. I'm at about 165. So I continue to hear lower weights from the scale. Ever so slowly. Maybe I can at least keep off these fifteen pounds I've lost over the last eight months. More importantly I'm feeling better and my joints are feeling much better.
• Drink more water. I don't think I drink enough but I'm trying. Coffee, not good. I know. I am going to try to concentrate on water on the road trip. As it gets hotter I need to pay more and more attention to it. And drinking water does keep me awake.
• Eat more healthy food. Fruit! Vegetables! Every day. Sometimes I still just eat cheese and chips and stuff, but I'm trying to eat lots of salads, more fish, raw vegies. At least, when I eat junk I pay attention. ("Look! The all cheese diet...if I lose weight I can write a book. Oh. Yeah. I have trouble sticking with writing, too. I have almost given up sodas, too.)
• Write! Not just this journal. All the short stories I've outlined. All the essays. Start on the novels and non-fiction books. This, as you know, is not going well. For instance, right this minute I'm writing this drivel instead.
• Find an appropriate volunteer activity. Haven't really found this.
• Travel and, when I do, take the time to prepare by reading books. I planned a trip to San Francisco.
• Pay more attention to investments and our budget. Save money. I'm still trying to get a handle on the finances and how I can improve them without going back to work.
• Continue my workouts and start playing tennis and maybe racquetball. I've played some tennis. I've had real success getting to the gym and making slow progress with the weights and the aerobic stuff.
• Take Bridge lessons and learn more about Bridge.Well, this was a silly resolution and one I've made little progress on.
• Cook more. Start making crêpes again. I spend time in the kitchen but it's usually cleaning up what FFP cooks or what we 'heat and eat' or chopping something or just boiling eggs and making tuna fish salad and stuff like that.
• Get the closets, garage, drawers, shed, yard, storage room clean and keep them that way.My office is a mess and there is little progress elsewhere either.
• Learn to make a movie.Every time I think about this it seems like a good idea.
• Learn more about photography.Does learning how to operate someone else's new digital camera count?
• Geez, this list is too long...make shorter lists.I haven't been making 'to do' lists lately. But should I be and is this lack evidence of advancing sloth?
• Ride the bus and write about it.I keep looking at the people at the bus stops and reconsidering this. I'm such an elitist.
• Get my mother's things sold or given away or packed and sent to my relatives.We gave away a miniature Chinese restaurant and packed up stuff to go to Denver.
• Read more books.I keep reading books. Peter the Great is kind of long, though, and it's taking time.
• Do some Windows programming and JavaScript and learn Linux.Bah, no progress.
• Hmmm...it's the same every year, isn't it? Why don't I make one list for all time (work harder, read, write, exercise, eat better, learn stuff, save money, lose weight, be a better person).I still believe in resolutions although I'm not very good at achieving the goals.

As to how it feels to be retired for eight months, well, I keep thinking that I will start to do it well. Of course, I thought that, during the thirty-three years I worked after my BA degree, that I would start at some point doing that well. And I never felt I achieved it. Yeah, I wrote code, got products out, got promoted, yada yada. But my own estimate of my achievements? On a scale of 1 to 10, about a two. Or a three. I'm my own worst critic. So, I'm not too thrilled with my retirement 'achievements' either but you can take that for what it's worth. I am my own worst critic. Maybe.