Angie Dillon will ring in this new year with a hammer – on her house.

Monday, January 03, 2000

Angie Dillon will ring in this new year with a hammer – on her house.

"We bought a piece of property and our goal for the new year is to break ground," Mrs. Dillon said.

Although it’s not one of the usual resolutions, like losing weight or exercising more, hers is just as stressful when it comes to making it happen.

There are house plans to contend with, for example, Mrs. Dillon said, smiling.

"We flip through them and think this is the one we want, then we see something else we like and look at each other and say, ‘I don’t know."

Ralph Peterman of Coal Grove liked choosing from the usual suspects for his New Year’s resolutions.

"I need to start exercising more," he said, patting his stomach.

"I started last year and lasted until about the middle of February," he said. "It got tiresome and I decided I needed to quit."

And he doesn’t want to let that anti-exercise bug bite again.

Nancy Webb of Ironton doesn’t make resolutions, she said with a little laugh.

"Oh, they never last, so I don’t waste time."

Still smiling, she adds that there might have been some in the past. But she’s not going to talk about them now.

Like Mrs. Webb, the Rev. Pete Shaffer, pastor of South Point United Methodist Church, lacks resolutions.

"For me, a resolution is simply an expression that we’re not satisfied with who we are," Shaffer said.

"As a person of faith, I believe what the Bible teaches, that I don’t have to make myself better for God If I need to be changed, He will take care of that, too, if I just let him."

Still, the minister would like to see more encouragement, more positive events, happen in people’s lives this year.

In Lawrence County, where many jobs have been lost, more encouragement from people will create a little more certainty about the future, Shaffer said.

Of course, he wouldn’t turn down a resolution to pray more, he added.

Pat Browning, who works at Liberty Federal Savings and Loan in Ironton, has plans for accomplishing her 2000 resolutions.

Ticking them off, Mrs. Browning said she will adopt a different attitude about some things and strive to be more patient.

"I just want to be a better person," she said. "And I want to lose weight."

In fact, Mrs. Browning and other employees have taken a lose-weight-and-exercise vow together.

Beginning this week, a team of bank employees will meet that resolution with a little more fun and by sticking together, she said.

Chris Johnson of Burlington also will concentrate a little more on his health during the next 12 months.

"I think losing weight and making more money would be my resolutions," he said.

Rick Lewis agreed, adding another year’s vow to give up smoking to his resolution list.

"I’ve got to start lifting something other than a cigarette and a fork."