2019 Begins

As is typically the case, January is a time of reflection and introspection. Be clear, I am not a "New Year's resolution" person. I haven't had success over the years with stating on one given day the things I will change about myself in the coming year. It just hasn't worked for me. If it works for you, I applaud your ability to use this time of the year to determine your upcoming course of action and then do something with it. For myself, I've always had to kind of sneak up on something, starting a new habit or activity without the fanfare and public announcement of a New Year's resolution. Then some great deal of time down the road, I will either admit to what I have been working on, or my friends and family will just notice it.

Several years ago, probably four or five, I came across an article about ten essential DIY skills. At the time, I had seven of the ten. I can't remember what all of them were, but I knew there were three I still needed to acquire. The first of these was to build a computer from scratch.  I tackled. With the help of my son Andrew, and Newegg.com, I acquired and built a computer that still functions in my basement today. To be completely honest, Andrew did much of the work and all of the tricky parts, just telling me what I needed to do next. But, with that experience, I knocked "Build a Computer from scratch" off the list and had eight of the ten in hand. Then, as so often happens, time passed. A lot of time passed. Then, out of left field, my daughter Megan entered and helped me pick up the next skill.

Apparently, somewhere along the line, I had mentioned that I didn't know how to sew and would like to learn. In my household, this is really not something I need to be able to do as both Sara and Megan are quite accomplished, but it was on the list, so, I wanted to learn the basics. For my birthday / Christmas Megan gave me a jelly roll of fabric and the time and direction to turn it into a quilt top. For those of you who quilt a lot, you already know that a jelly roll race isn't the most complex quilting project ever taken on, but for me, it was big. Thanks to my daughter, I have now completed a quilt top. She and Sara will quilt and finish it. With my jelly roll race quilt top complete, I checked sewing off the list I was working from.

One skill was left. Welding.

I had considered taking a class through adult education several times, but always talked myself out of it. Typically, because the class was held on two different weeknights starting right at the end of my workday. Since I'm not good at leaving work on time, I knew it would be a problem, and I'd end up missing too many classes. But this year, they offered a Saturday morning class. This is perfect. If I were home, I'd just be paying bills or sorting paperwork, but now, for the next eleven weeks, I will learn to weld. Last Saturday was the first class, and yes, I learned to melt metal with electricity. This may not be for all of you, but I can't even tell you how cool this is. I know I will enjoy this experience.

If, after this class is finished, I never weld or sew again, it is like so many things. This is learning nobody will ever take from me.

Now, I thought the other thing I should do is to go out and look at the current list of essential DIY skills. Like so many other things, it seems this list has changed over time. Below is the list I found through Google today:
1. Emergency Preparedness
2. Jailbreaking/Rooting your phone
3. Building a computer from scratch
4. Photo Editing
5. Cooking
6. Home Repair
7. Auto Maintenance
8. Sewing
9. Working with Electronics
10. Coding

Well, it looks like there are a couple of things on this list that aren't skills I possess. I will need to decide if those are things I need to take on as a challenge or not. Where are you with this list?  Are you adding to your individual skill set? Do you have any good recommendations as to where to learn some of these things? Let me know your thoughts.

As you can tell, I am excited about 2019 on a personal basis.  I sometimes start the year not looking forward, but not this year.  I am excited about what lies ahead and I hope each of you feel the same way.

Happy New Year.