Frazz by Jef Mallett for December 29, 2024

Cute idea. I’m w/ Frazz.

The problem with leaf blowers is that without extra effort they only blow FROM not TO. Now a seriously sucky shop-vac would probably work almost as well (though not so much fun).

Spouse’s system is to put notes on a little pad of paper about 1/4 of a typewriter sheet in size. Just one line after another, w/ phone numbers, plain numbers, a recipe, whatever needs to be noted. Then in a few weeks, when the page is full, she turns it over and does it all over on that side. Then she scans it an maybe (seldom) saves something to more permanent storage by writing it again… and throws out “the one note page”.

My system is to enter it into an easily searchable text database (I call it “rolo” because I wrote the little app to do the searching in a useful way. And keep a backup using time-machine (yes, I use a Macbook). Every once in a blue moon I notice a waaay out of date note (like the contact info for the handyman who has since passed away) while looking for something else and delete it, but mostly it’s semi-permanent.

Frazz would be impelled to make a resolution to do the Boston or New York marathon. But he would also need to find a way to lose that resolution. Thanks, Caulfield.

And he already has his first task for the new. year: Clean up the mess I made at the end of last year.

The fate of most resolutions.

I kinda remember a short essay from Dickens’ [I think] university days. Every month he came up short on his due bills. And every month he determined to avoid that in coming months by devising a budget and sticking to it.

He would get out a pile of foolscap and pen and ink and his bills. He would spend a couple of hours drawing up a list of bills vs money on hand, determine how to parcel out something to each to keep lenders, landlords, bar owners, etc happy. When he reached the final item, he realized he would never have enough money to satisfy even half the list.

He would think about it for a while, then tear up the list and go for a quaff of stout, a meat pie, and a game of whist [on credit, of course] with friends who followed the same philosophy. Sounds very modern.

A leaf blower! The much maligned leaf blower seems to me a very un-Frazz like tool.

Litter-ly true.

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind

Ready made graffiti for the big celebration!!

Nothing changes but the calendar. You can improve yourself at any minute; why wait until the first one of a year?

Leaves on the trees are the inspiration for this idea. And next year, new leaves!

“Catch up with Mull”?

And, like most things you do, it’s pointless.

Frazz has a leaf-blower? Doesn’t seem quite in character somehow.

if you write it down, it’s more likely to happen. If you tell your friends, it will get done, otherwise you’ll hear if for the rest of the year.

Make resolutions for your birthday because that is the new year for you.

Frazz does NOT nor WOULD have a leaf blower; little continuity issue here…