My Bucket List

     Isn't he adorable?  That's my new grandson Luke in the picture.  He's actually a month old now but time seems to just fly by lately.  And I've been told that since I'm retired the time will go by even more quickly.  Somebody compared it to when you're getting to the end of a roll of toilet paper . . . you never seem like you have quite enough left but what's left goes quickly.

    I'll have to think of some better imagery.

    Today was my first day as an official retiree.  I cut the grass, paid some bills, converted some returnable bottles and stray coins into cash for my retirement piggy bank (I've got about $40 there), picked up the house, made the bed--which is my wife's only standing order since she's still working, and took a nap.

    I'm not sure why I ran out of energy to the point where I needed a nap, but then maybe that's why I felt I had to retire before I turn 60 later this month.  Anyway, I decided to start a bucket list of things I want to do before the toilet paper runs out completely.  Here's what I got so far.  And since traveling is my favorite pasttime, it weighs heavily on my list.

     1.  Go to Ireland.  We want to do this relatively soon, probably next year.  I like traveling and Wendy likes to travel to countries where English is spoken.  So this works for both of us.

     2.  Camp at Bahia Honda State Park in the Florida keys.  We've passed this park a couple times while driving to Key West and I think it just looks like paradise.

     3.  Camp at Disneyworld, hopefully with my grandsons.  Disneyworld has an area set up for guest campers, from tents to trailers.  We've stayed before in the Disneyworld hotels but I've always been interested in what a camping vacation at Disneyworld would be like.

     4.  Buy a camper.  Kinda goes with number 2 and 3 above.  That would be a major expense for a retiree but I think we'd make good use out of it, including . . .

     5.  Travel around the country, staying a week or several days in places where we've never been, particularly out west.

     6.  Take a Mediterranean cruise, one that would made extended port stops at Italy and other countries.  We're not big on cruises, but I think this one would work for us.

     7.  Not to be monotonous, but finally I'd like to take an adventure tour, one of those National Geogaphic expeditions,  Or something like it.  I teased Wendy about going to Antarctica, but I was just kidding.  Maybe the Galapagos or New Zealand.

      8.  Aside from traveling, or maybe as a side bar bucket, I'd like to publish a travel article, one that'd pay me a stipend of some kind.  Since writing has always been an avocation, I'd like to publish something in the fiction realm as well, something I also could get paid for.

      9.  Learn to golf.  I've never done it.  But I figure it's never too late to learn.

    10.  Miscellaneous.  There's a ton of home fix-it projects that await.  I'd also like to water ski again, something I haven't done in 30 or so years.  I've been looking for a new mannequin for my Halloween coffin for years.  Finding that would be worth a check-off of sorts.  I'd like to learn what my digital piano can do besides let me play simple songs.  And so on, and so on.

    Lots to keep me busy.  Maybe I should cut out the naps.