Bucket List Revisited

     Two years ago when I first retired I wrote out a bucket list of things I wanted to do.  Now that I’m 62 and more officially a senior--at least according to the local movie house that offers discounts beginning at that particular age--I thought I’d revisit the list.

     Scratch off the Ireland trip.  Been there, done that . . . though it was kinda planned at the time I’d composed my original bucket list so not a big deal.  My other major travel goals aren’t likely to come to fruition anytime soon, however.  We haven’t bought a camper yet and the trips we are planning right now, to an oceanside condo this year and Alaska next year, were not on my original bucket list.

    My writing efforts thus far have been anemic.  Though getting something published was on my list, I’ve done a few short stories but nothing truly significant.  Even putting up one new blog a month seems a chore at times.

    I have rationalized that some of the videos I’ve made with my grandsons could be counted as creative efforts since I used the Microsoft Moviemaker program with editing, sound effects and music.  Maybe someday one could go viral though I doubt it.

    Speaking of my grandsons, I discovered that my ‘bucket list’ blog of a couple years ago included a picture of my newborn grandson.  So I thought I might as well include a then and now picture of Luke here.  He’s a big boy now but I can still see the resemblance to his newborn photo.

   I did kinda scratch off another item from my original bucket list:  “9. Learn to golf.  I've never done it.  But I figure it's never too late to learn.”  Coincidentally, my son Scott wanted to play a round of golf for his final bachelor’s fling before getting married next month.  And last weekend we did.

    My other son Greg loaned me an extra set of clubs so I could practice my swing.  I “honed” my skills at a couple local driving ranges.  Then it was tee time.  I was surprised the fairways weren’t wider; I was expecting more hitting space like at the driving range.

    Almost immediately, my ball went off into the woods somewhere.  Also, almost immediately after the five of us started, I discovered there’s somebody else on the golf course besides golfers and caddies.  He’s called a course ranger, an employee whose job it is to keep things moving.

    I did appreciate that this ranger found my ball in the woods, but his demands that we “go faster” seemed impossible.  Heck, it took me 13 strokes to get my ball in the first hole (is that a quintuple bogey?).  And that’s not counting penalty strokes since I gave up trying to get out of the woods when the trees kept getting in the way.  Throwing the ball got me farther.

    We ended up playing ‘best ball’ which meant we all played the ball which was hit closest to the pin, or cup, or whatever they call it.  I had very few of the best shots.  One time I did have a nice straight drive down the fairway.  Everyone else in our party had hit their ball into the woods.  No wonder we were constantly shadowed by these rangers.  We should have told those guys they need to cut down some of these trees.

    Anyhoo, when I found my ball in the middle of the fairway, there was another ball ‘better’, about ten yards ahead.  It was from my son Scott whose shot had caromed off at least one tree by the sound of it.  But it pinballed back into play and ahead of mine.  Such was my day “learning to golf.”

    A few days later I had monster bruises down my right arm.  My son Greg told me, around about the seventeenth hole, that I was swinging the racket, er, club with my forearm when the power should be coming from my backhard.  Maybe that’s why my forearm was so bruised.

    Well, I figure I can scratch learning to golf from my bucket list, one way or another.  Wonder if I have something similarly physical on there.  Oh, oh.  Waterskiing. 

    New plan.  Every two years I do a new bucket list.