List De Bucket

Okay, I watched the movie and I have to say my goals might not be Hollywood material. Still, with Daughter Two going off to college, I'll lose my regular kayak partner, as well as my connection to volleyball officiating, volunteering for robotics and theatre – you know the drill.

 So, it’s time to think about filling time. Oops, what an unexciting way to think of it, huh?

Seriously, I have been pouring some serious brain juice into the whole idea of what I intend to accomplish / see / enjoy / contribute before I kack. And it turns out, there’s actually a lot I’d like to get to while I’m here. (By the bye, there’s a GREAT Phil Ochs song called While I’m Here that everyone with an ounce of caring should have memorized, but that’s just my opinion.)

I know this needs a lot of editing and I’m sure items will be added to and edited from the list as I go along. But for the moment, here’s the list, in no particular order.

Before I become fish food, I will:

1.       Visit every state in the union, at ground level - airport connections don’t count;

2.       See my daughters comfortably settled into their adult lives, at least the early chapters;

3.       Publish a serious work of fiction;

4.       Kayak the B.C. islands and inlets;

5.       Get my guitar chops back;

6.       Learn at least one ballroom dance so I can dance with Mary at our 50^th anniversary – I’ll be 83, so probably not a tango;

7.       Learn no more than one ballroom dance, because I sincerely hate dancing and probably still will when I’m  83;

8.       Take a serious driving tour with my brother;

9.       Hike to the top of Mt. Si and Half Dome;

10.   Finish fixing up this house, sell it and down-size;

11.   Ride the trans-Canada Railroad;

12.   Drive from here to Fairbanks;

13.   Visit Southeast Alaska – Juneau, Ketchikan, etc.;

14.   Finish my letters to my daughters;

15.   Communicate effectively with a dog on the first try;

16.   Have every piece of paper in our house in the place where it belongs, and no excess paper anywhere in the house, and everything else put away, and the house clutter cleared out, all at the same time;

17.   Get down to one car between us;

18.   Calve off one-third of my present body weight, preferably from the blubberier areas;

19.   Know for sure that the people I love know how much I love them;

20.   (To be determined);