- Image by Express Monorail via Flickr
New Year’s Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.
Mark Twain
Coots are ready for 2011
Well, it’s almost New Years Eve and the Coots are ready for 2011. Not that we are complaining about 2010, mind you. It’s been a fine year. First Justin got the hair-brained idea that there was a market for cantankerosity and then built a stable of cranky, opinionated guys to do the work. Between maintaining his virtuosity on the kettle bells, running his web commerce sites and adding a fourth kid to his household, he has a full plate. Well, the man is obviously a genius. Coot’s isn’t even a year old but each month sees the readers growing as does his stable of hacks.
The Team of Hacks
So far, Justin has snagged me and Bob into regular participation and occasional posts from Jen to give a feminine touch. Over the year , I have enjoyed the opportunity to release my inner curmudgeon- letting it all hang out so to speak. It surprised me that saying what you really think is harder than you would think. There have been times when I have had to sweat in order to dredge up feelings suppressed by years of employment. I find that I actually do have some opinions and that they aren’t the ones I see in the news. As I get older and free from the constraints of a job, I’m finding that the more I see, the less I like.
Bob, the newest addition to Justin’s stable is a young pup too but the man has a lot of experience under his belt for his tender years. He has taken some hard knocks and popped right back up. He has had lots of experience and has done his share of pushing the envelope, surprising me and maybe even himself at every turn. And the man has opinions that just won’t stop. I can make an outrageous statement and he can come back in a second to bury my puny outrage with an avalanche of pure cantankerosity. I can’t imagine what Bob will be able to do when he gets a few years on him.
Looking forward
As the year winds down for the team at Coots, we are just getting our second wind. We have learned some things and forgot some others, We have gotten some things right but we are still clueless about many others. For 2011, we want to take Coots to new heights of cantankerosity. We want to make Coot’s University a real resource for those who are cantankerously challenged. And we want to get down to your core where true cantanerosity begins and shake up all that conventional wisdom. Our loyal readers deserve no less.
Happy New Year
On behalf of all the Coots, I wish you a very cantankerous New Year. The world needs more people to say “Hey, wait a minute. That makes no sense!” when they listen to the news. It needs more people to tell it like it is. It needs more people to stop taking crap and smiling about it. It needs you. You know it’s true. You know you’re a pussy. So make a resolution to make Cantankerous Old Coots a regular read in 2011.
And give us feedback.
Finally, Coot’s want you to tell us what you need. What do you enjoy most from Coots and what could we do to increase your enjoyment and help you become a Cantankerous Old Coot (whatever your age)? Is there a cantankerous corner that we have missed? Let us know.
Hey Coots……Just keep it coming. There’s a whole world full of mind-bending BS out there that is in need of mature, cantankerous commentary.
Happy New Year to you all.
Hansi
Hey Ralph, 55, 56 in a little more than a week, ain’t exactly a “young pup”…though I can see how it would look that way from your well advanced age, ya ol’ fart.
Anyway, I feel kinda sorry for you and Justin in the upcoming year. Justin sits there in the shadow of the greatest singing group in the world trying to be cantankerous with little experience and a set of kettlebells for inspiration.
Pfffft!!!
You have a bit of an edge on him, by way of life experience if nothing else. Add to that your proximity to the Master of the Cryptic, the inimitable Dr. D., and you are bound to be somewhat cantankerous, by osmosis if no other way. Be sure to wear your tinfoil hat tilted towards whichever direction from you Doolin is…otherwise you’ll become as cryptic as him and start talking in riddles.
Now me…I’ve got it made in my semi-retirement (I prefer that to disabled, BTW. A “semi-retired writer” sounds cool to chicks…now I need a Herringbone sport jacket with leather elbow patches. Justin, you’re too young to understand.).
With my preferred topics being politics and homesteading/alternative housing, I’m in good shape.
I’ve got Obama, a still democratically controlled senate, a republican party that I don’t think got the message we sent on November 2, and a federal bureaucracy exercising tremendous unconstitutional power that will take years to dismantle even if our elected officials DO grow the balls (pardon me, Ms. Bachman) to begin to reign them in.
I’m all set. My posts will practically write themselves. You and Justin are gonna have to work at it.
You need a pipe to go with the sport coat…belive it or not, I got it.
Bob,
I assume that you are referring to Donnie and Marie. Should Justin try to sing along, it is bound to impair his contanerosity. I suppose that a semi-retired writing appeals to chicks more than a semi-retired goat farmer but I am way out of practice at the singles scene. That’s for you young guys. Just remember you are getting older every day- just like a fine aged cheese.
Hansi,
We will do our best. Thanks for the support.
Actually I was thinking along the lines of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
There is no accounting for tastes.
I kinda like my taste:
Bob,
Somebody has to.
Happy New Year to you too! I’ve enjoyed reading your blog these past few months.
I also took some advice you gave me this year and told our daughter we weren’t coming to anymore “kid parties’ for the grandkids. The first one is next weekend. We took our gift over and had a family celebration on his actual birthday.
Feels good to be liberated from that duty!
Joan,
Glad you enjoy the blog. Hope you are discovering how powerful and important Grandma’s can be.