Outdoors with Don Q: Some resolutions for the New Year 2013

First, let me say Happy New Year. This is the first part of January and this is also a good time for all of us (including me) to make some personal resolutions for the year 2013.
Most importantly, remember that if you do make any resolutions, be sure to follow through with what you resolve to do in this new year.
Resolutions are easy to make, but sometimes hard to accomplish.
I have a number of things I would like to accomplish this year, so without any further ado, here are my 2013 resolutions:

I RESOLVE TO:
Finally catch a fish larger than Elaine's:
Whenever and wherever we go fishing, Elaine consistently outfishes me.
Through the years of our marriage, she has outfished me at Davis Lake, Frog Lake, Kinney Reservoir, Pyramid Lake, Sitka Alaska (two times), Lake Tahoe (four straight times), The Yukon, Walker Lake, etc.
I am getting an inferiority complex, plus it doesn’t help that my other fishing partners always remind me of being outfished by my wife. I need help!

Find a new betting pigeon:
Being sneaky, each year I try to find a newly-arrived pigeon with whom I make an innocent-looking, dumb-sounding, but almost sure-fire bet.
My bet is that it will snow in Carson City the week of my birthday and my birthday is May 08. On the average I win this bet 8 out of every 10 years!
New arrivals in Carson City fall for this bet every year.

Help make CarsonNow.org a world-class website:
I have had the personal pleasure of writing about the Great Outdoors for almost two years at this internet website.
It is a great location, and I also have the pleasure of working with Kirk Caraway and Jeff Munson, two very knowledgeable and classy people!
I will continue to work to make carsonnow.org even bigger and better in 2013. You can bet on it!

Not get so irritated at the dumb drivers at the Post Office:
Every time we go to check the mail in our post office box at the main location on Roop Street, it is an adventure in that parking lot.
Every dumb and/or rude driver in Carson City is usually there: Going the wrong direction, illegally parking, backing out without looking, tailgating, honking their horn, etc. There ought to be a hunting season on them.
That parking lot is a fender bender waiting to happen to the unwary.

Not get so irritated at our traffic lights:
Also in my less-than humble opinion, Carson City has unrealistic lengths of red light phases on the side streets that cross Carson Street.
Some of the worse waits are at Fairview, Fifth, Long, and William.
Whoever times those lights must think that our Carson City blocks are as long as the blocks in New York City.
I wonder if that person has ever driven on any of our side streets?

Not get so irritated at endless TV commercials:
In my less-than-humble opinion, my ever increasing desire to watch DVD movies rather than television programs is the ever increasing number of dumb and repeated commercials on every program on every channel.
You have to sit through commercial after commercial after commercial, etc. to continue watching whatever program you have on.
Those obnoxious advertisers must think that viewers are dumb as bricks.

Return to Bishop Creek:
This will be a multi-part resolution for late September or early October:
To stay for several days in Cabin No. 08 at Parchers Resort, where that cabin's water lines are reversed and the toilet flushes with hot water!
To photograph the stunning fall colors on the highway to South Lake and the other highway to Lake Sabrina.
To catch and release countless rainbow trout at Lake Sabrina.

Return to Italy:
However, the next time there will be some major changes.
I have no desire to return to the big cities (Florence, Milan, Palermo, Pisa, Rome, Venice, et al) because of the huge crowds of people and the insane traffic on the streets, plus all of the trash and graffiti everywhere.
However, I do want to re-visit the quiet and scenic Northern Italy countryside, the Dolomite Mountains, Cortina and Lake Como.

Return to the Yukon:
I would love to return to the Yukon this year to, once again, visit, camp and fish with our good friends Barry and Susan Drury of Watson Lake.
Our vacation trip up there, last year, was a "Ton of Fun."
This time, I plan to eat his streaks and drink his whiskey while outfishing him in all of the lakes, rivers and creeks that we visited in 2012.
And, Elaine will be there to take lots of photos of my accomplishments.

Spend lots of time doing yard work:
One of my favorite pastimes is all of the work keeping our front and back yards in tip top shape: Fertilizing, watering, mowing and trimming the lawns; pruning the bushes and trees and planting flowers and vegetables.
It is a labor of love and the countless hours result a neat landscape.
I also look forward to all of the outside work at our cabin: Pulling weeds, watering plants, bushes, flowers, etc. Two homes equal lots of fun work.

Finally:
Make one or more of your own resolutions and then just be sure to follow through with them for 2013.

Bet Your Favorite Pigeon
Bet your favorite pigeon which of the above resolutions will be the hardest to achieve in 20123
If he grins and says, “Heck, that’s easy – Don will have a hard time trying to outfish Elaine,” he could be one of our regular fishing partners.

— Don Quilici is the Outdoor editor for Carson Now and www.SouthTahoeNow.com. He can be reached at donquilici@hotmail.com