So, New Year's Eve

When I was younger, I promised myself I would not end up some eccentric old man living alone in a house full of animals. But I made that promise because even as far back as the seventies, I could see the direction I was headed.

The die, I now realize, was already cast then. The opportunity for a 'normal' life presented itself a few times in the intervening years, and I always passed.

And what if I hadn't? I try to visualize myself with a soccer mom wife and two kids, in church on Sunday, going to college football and NBA games, eating at Applebee's or TGIFriday's, still wearing a coat and tie to the cubicle. I'd be in the suburbs with a house whose mortgage I could barely afford, a pickup truck and small SUV in the driveway. We'd have cable TV, and it would be on all the time. Plus a Wii and an Xbox and Blu-ray and god knows what else.

That would be, in a word, hell.

I'm very fond of my cats, somewhat less fond of my crazy dog, and happy to come and go as I please. No TV, no video games, no SUV. I can't tell you the last time I ate in a chain restaurant or even a trendy local place. No coat and tie. No football, no basketball. I like sleeping on the porch.

I'm an eccentric old man living alone in a house full of animals. And that has mostly turned out OK.