Lists, lists

If only, I should have, someday I'm going to, if not now, when? Those lists that keep you going, doing, wishing. Do they keep you on task or do they just keep you plodding along day in and out to meet that someday goal?

I am a list maker when I have a task. But when I don't have a specific deadline they tend to fall off the shelf in my mind and get caught up in the day to day stuff like being angry at the government. I think for a while I am not going to read the newspaper or news. It pulls me off task and somehow in my mind I think by saying something about an injustice in the world I can change it. It is foolhardy at best. So I am going to leave it be. I have a small corner of the world that I call mine and that is what I will concentrate on for now.

So what about the list? I, like most everyone, has heard about the professor. You know him, Professor Pausch. Yes, that professor. He has told the world he has pancreatic cancer. Has about six months to live; And asks what would you do with your six months?

Well, I don't want to live like I have six months to live, but I do want to make a list of things I'd still like to do. Let's see, 100 things. Not general things, but specific things.

1. Go to Beatrix Potter's garden in Birnam (at Dunkeld) in Scotland.
2. Have a family portrait taken at the beach.
3. Walk the streets of Brisbane in Queensland.
4. Plant ten acres of Lavendar and sell a crop.
5. Have a farm school in Arizona.
6. Eat pecans off my own trees.
7. Tour Boston.
8. Publish a book.
9. Play kickball with Little Miss and Sport.
10. Teach someone small to embroider.
11. Learn to needle a felt figure. (I have the necessary items, just set aside the time.)
12. Go to San Felipe with the big guy and have fresh broiled shrimp again.
13. Learn to speak Spanish, not the jibberish I now speak.
14. Build a house.
15. Be able to identify a few more stars on sight, and not just the Big and Little Dippers or Orion.
16. Sell a $500 piece of art from glass I make.
17. Ride a bike with Sport along the coast of California.
18. Collect shells in Mazatlan with the family.
19. Take photos professionally, for a food/candy company.
20. Go back to Hyde Park with the husband.
21. Get personalized M&Ms.
22. Keep my car running forever.
23. Spend a weekend with my sisters at the beach.
24. Go to New Zealand and eat lamb the way it should be cooked.
25. Make my own chocolate, from the bean, at least once.
26. Encourage others to be adventurous, always.
27. Turn off the TV for a week.
28. Meet Lisa, in person again.
29. Meet an Apostle.
30. Finish a quilted quilt.
31. Go to DC (Lexington) to see my oldest son-in-law graduate from law school.
32. Take a driving course at Las Vegas Speedway with other MINI owners.
33. Go to Abbey Road and cross the street.
34. Have a letter to the editor published.
35. Go with the grandkids Grunion hunting.
36. Visit all Fifty nifty United States.
37. Grow Bluebonnets in Arizona.
38. Run a mile.
39. Run a mile, every day for a year.
40. Eat croissants in Paris.
41. Encourage someone to follow their dreams.
42. Build an observatory.
43. Take deep space photographs.
44. Publish a set of Christmas cards.
45. Read Les Miserables.
46. Camp on the beach.
47. Own another VW Van.
48. Make a chocolate souffle.
49. Work in a candy factory for a season.
50. Tour the church history sights.
51. Find out what really happened to my father (it may be too late).
52. Write a six word story.
53. Watch a sunset while sipping seven up in the sand.
54. Go to the Calgary stampede.
55. Be happy, even if I don't finish the list.
56. Fund joy in small things.
57. Have chickens, for fresh eggs.
58. Teach my grandkids to bodysurf.
59. Remodel the bathroom.
60. Install the tankless water heater.

Okay, breath time. I'll post the last forty tomorrow.