'Happy news year' filled with plenty of resolutions, commitments

Happy New Year!

Or, as we prefer around the Daily Bee: Happy News Year!

I love the idea of starting a new year. There is nothing more liberating than unlimited possibilities.

Since you asked, here are a few of my New Year's resolutions:

? Be a better husband and dad. This one's tough because I never really know how I am doing. On the husband part, it's touch and go on a daily basis. All the goodwill built up by a few weeks of taking the garbage out can completely be erased by one toilet seat being left up.

As far as the dad part goes, when do you really know you are doing a good job? That's also touchy although I am working on a passing grade right now based on participation. That grade might be tenuous, though, based on various possible piercings, tattoos, wrecked cars, friends, etc. during the next decade or so.

? Put out a better community newspaper. I work with some of the best people imaginable. As a team, they put out the "Daily Miracle." This year we are all going to focus more on doing a better job. Every department. Every Bee. Our challenge is to cover the local news better and continue to be the number one source for effective advertising.

? Renew my professional, personal and civic responsibilities. I am lucky enough to be a part of much of what goes on in and around Sandpoint. This year I need to be more consistently active in the causes I believe.

There is only one person with his foot on my accelerator in 2006, and that is me. I need to know to push and when to let up.

? Keep my health and improve my fitness. As the sign at Sandpoint West Athletic Club stated a few years back: Merry Fitness and a Happy New Rear. I still giggle at that one. Last year, I ran a marathon. This year I intend on running the New York Marathon as well as competing in Bloomsday for the 19th year. I am also going to "do Sandpoint" by competing in Eric Ridgway's Long Bridge Swim, the Lake to Forest Triathlon and the Schweitzer bike race.

I looked back on my resolutions from last year and I am proud to tell you, I nailed every one of them. I also have to tell you that I have five more for this year that aren't listed.

I am always curious about what makes other people tick. Resolutions are a great measurement. I find most people don't make them. My guess is they are afraid to fall short because they know they can't see them through.

My Mom was a lifelong smoker until she had a heart attack a few years ago. The heart attack did it. She was done. Her cardiologist approached her while she was still in the hospital with a Nicoderm patch and asked her to use it to help quit smoking.

"I've been without a cigarette for five days since I have been in here," she said. "Why would I want to put nicotine back in my body?"

I also have a running dialog with the gaggle of smokers here at the Bee. Every once in awhile one of them will come up to me either excited or depressed with the announcement they have guit smoking.

"You mean you are taking a break from smoking?" I will always reply.

"No, I am quitting smoking," they will repeat.

"How many times have you "quit" smoking before?" I'll ask.

The answer varies.

"You can only quit smoking once," I'll lecture. "Anything else is just taking a vacation from it."

I don't have a lot of friends who are smokers.

I also believe in goals. I have discovered that people who don't set them are beholden to those who do.

Sandpoint Police Chief Mark Lockwood is recruiting participants in the Citizen Police Academy. I volunteered.

In order to be accepted though, I had to fill out a background check permission slip. Part of the slip worried me. It reads: "… I further understand that a felony or serious misdemeanor conviction may or may not be grounds for disqualification from attending this program." I want to see a show of hands from my academy mates about who has a felony or serious misdemeanor prior to the March 13 class that will feature "Firearms safety and live fire of departmental handguns."

It's good to know who your friends are before any live fire of departmental handguns, I always say.

The CPA is a great idea and I'll keep you posted. Count me out of the Feb. 27 session that features Tasers, though. The office was split over who would volunteer to be Tasered. I wouldn't. It seemed the younger the person, the more likely they wouldn't mind being Tasered in my unscientific poll. How about you?

Didn't the Rose Bowl used to be played on New Year's Day? Wednesday night's game was simply the best college football game I have ever seen. Texas deserves the national championship. Vince Young was the best player on the field.

Can't imagine two Trojan fans in Northshore are very happy right now. There's always next year and the year after and the year after.

Who else loves the Laughing Dog Brewery logo? The drawing of Ben, the labrador model for the design on the side of the brewery's delivery truck, elicits smiles from pedestrians and motorists alike.

Ben recently became the proud poppa of nine healthy puppies, or make that a six pack and a half. Mom, Libby, is resting comfortably. Michelle and Fred are proud to be grandparents and are excited their "micro-brood" is growing.

The Daily Bee's online poll reveals that 165 people wanted to share whether they believe in Santa Claus. Sixty-three percent said yo-ho-ho while 36 percent said no-ho-ho.

We have a raging debate in our extended family about whether to put much stock in Kris Kringle. One part of the family says come clean to all kids of all ages because focusing on the guy in the sleigh takes away from focusing on the guy who died on the cross.

How do you or did you handle that discussion in your family? Drop me a note at dkeyes@bonnercountydailybee.com.

This week's online poll question: "Do you support the proposed Pend Oreille Recreation District?" Vote at bonnercountydailybee.com.

Who hasn't had the flu this year? This nasty strain that makes the Bird Flu look like Chicken Little has literally brought this area to its knees. I hadn't missed a day at work for more than a decade until a few weeks ago when my head started spinning and I felt hot and cold at the exact same moment.

I put myself to bed and quarantined myself for 30 hours in our bedroom. My only human interaction was when my wife, Marlisa, would quietly sneak into the room to bring me a glass of stale 7-UP and to see if I was still alive.

Everybody I have talked to has either been clobbered by this bad bug or are hiding from people who have been.

I was glad to see so many people skiing this weekend. Schweitzer was so packed that GM Ron Nova and his lovely wife, Berni, were pressed into driving the ski buses. Not to worry, they both have been driving buses for years and the "real" driver I was talking with said they are both great drivers.

There seems to be more questions than answers right now about the formation of a recreation district to build a skating rink/swimming facility in Kootenai. There is a vote scheduled in February. This paper is working on the story and I have offered to co-sponsor an information night with the organizers. Lots of letters have been coming in.

Stay tuned…

I had a chance to buy a few Christmas gifts at Meadow Brook Home and Gift, located at 205 Cedar. Great store. Lots of imagination and a great selection of quality items. I received a great shirt and tie from Finan McDonald from my bride. It was the year of the princess for my 5-year-old daughter and year of the Bulldogs for my 10-year-old son. Merwin's, Sandpoint Drug, Sharon's Hallmark, Meyer's Sport-Tees, Pampurred Pets, Athlete's Choice and one or two other local stores had entries in our checkbook register this Christmas.

Call me old fashioned, but I still believe shopping locally feels better and does more good for the community than shopping out of town or on the Internet.

And speaking of shopping at home for Christmas … the Daily Bee "Bonner County Reflections" arrived from Portland just in time for next Christmas. They showed up three days after Christmas. The book is a hot commodity at Yoke's, Wal-Mart, Vanderford's and here at the Hive. We have gotten calls from Hastings in Coeur d'Alene to sell the books there so we will.

We printed 1,000 books and have already sold 600. My guess is this unique hardbound book will sell out in the next few weeks.

Stock up now…

What was the greatest thing before sliced bread? Historian Valle Novak answered this question from my last column. The older saying was "It is the greatest thing since the girdle." Now you know.

E-mail of the week: The National Transportation Safety Board recently divulged it had covertly funded a project with U.S. auto makers for the past five years, whereby the auto makers were installing black box voice recorders in four-wheel drive pickup trucks and SUVs in an effort to determine, in fatal accidents, the circumstances in the last moments before the crash.

They were not surprised to find in 44 of the 50 states the recorded last words of drivers in 61.2 percent of fatal crashes were, "Oh, heck!"

But the states of Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, Montana, Idaho, and Kentucky were different, where 89.3 percent of the final words were, "Hold my beer, I'm gonna try somethin."

E-mail of the week, Part 2:

What a difference 20 years makes:

? 1975: Long hair

2005: Longing for hair

? 1975: KEG

2005: EKG

? 1975: Acid rock

2005: Acid reflux

? 1975: Moving to California because it's cool

2005: Moving to Arizona because it's warm

? 1975: Trying to look like Marlon Brando or Liz Taylor

2005: Trying NOT to look like Marlon Brando or Liz Taylor

? 1975: Seeds and stems

2005: Roughage

? 1975: Going to a new, hip joint

2005: Receiving a new hip joint

? 1975: Rolling Stones

2005: Kidney Stones

? 1975: Being called into the principal's office

2005: Calling the principal's office

? 1975: Screw the system

2005: Upgrade the system

? 1975: Disco

2005: Costco

? 1975: Parents begging you to get your hair cut

2005: Children begging you to get their heads shaved

? 1975: Passing the drivers' test

2005: Passing the vision test

? 1975: Whatever

2005: Depends

Just in case you weren't feeling too old today, this will certainly change things.

The people who are starting college this fall across the nation were born in 1987.

They are too young to remember the first space shuttle blowing up on liftoff.

Their lifetime has always included AIDS.

Bottle caps have always been screw off and plastic.

The CD was introduced the year they were born.

They have always had an answering machine.

They have always had cable.

They cannot fathom not having a remote control.

Jay Leno has always been on the Tonight Show.

Popcorn has always been cooked in the microwave.

They never took a swim and thought about Jaws.

They can't imagine what hard contact lenses are.

They don't know who Mork was or where he was from.

They never heard: "Where's the Beef?", "I'd walk a mile for a Camel", or "de plane, Boss, de plane."

They do not care who shot J.R. and have no idea who J.R. even is.

McDonald's never came in Styrofoam containers.

They don't have a clue how to use a typewriter.

David Keyes is publisher of the Bee. His column runs weekly.