Friday OT #1 - Buckethead

Angie

Tugboats and arson.
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Mar 27, 2006
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I crossed a long-standing item off my bucket list this week when I got to drive a Zamboni (thanks to a class offered through my local Parks and Rec).

What bucket list items have you done? Did they live up to expectations? What do you have left?
 
Solo backpacking 3 years ago.

Was honestly kind of underwhelming but maybe it was because I'd already spent good time in the area (Porkies, U.P.) prior.

You also have to reserve sites now so I had 3 individual spots so took the 'adventure' feel out.

My first site was down a little hill off trail right on Lake Superior and I would have been better off just keeping that as a home base, and doing long hikes or whatever throughout the day.

The last two sites were 1) only 5ish miles so packing and unpacking felt kind of pointless since it was such a short distance and 2) were right by the trail, not close to anything special.

Was still good time in the forest so no complaints on that end.
 
About 7 years ago I was at a substantial cross roads in my life. Lots of thoughts and feelings bouncing around in my head.

One evening, I started sipping on some Cedar Ridge out on my patio and started writing down everything I wanted out of life. Honestly, not a terribly impressive list, but a framework nonetheless.

Quite unconsciously, I have managed to cross off most of those line items on that list. Some stuff felt great to cross off, others…felt kinda empty. I am probably overdue to make another one, but I gotta say that life is pretty good right now and infinity better than where I was when I wrote my last one.
 
All five boys have college degrees and jobs and all had less than $10,000 in debt in student loans. Only the youngest two have any of their payments left, and they are just going to lump sum pay it all whenever the feds decide what is going to happen with student loans, since they both graduated during Covid remission. None of them have made us grandparents, which you hope doesn’t happen too soon, but we’re ready any time now. (This kind of reminds me of parenthood, you spend years trying not to be pregnant, and then you want to be pregnant with all your heart, then you spend the better part of a decade being pregnant)

I would like to visit Ireland some day and try to fill in some family tree gaps.

Need time to organize photos and scrapbooks before I croak.

Not a very impressive bucket but a good day for me is reading a book, watching the birds, and walking the dog.
 
Visiting Civil War battlefields. I saw Gettysburg, Antietam and Shiloh on a trip out east with my oldest daughter. We did other fun stuff, and didn't take in nearly as many battlefields as I would have liked, because I got tired of being on the road and just wanted to get home after awhile, but we hit some of the major ones. Gettysburg - the turning point in the war; Antietam - the highest number of casualties in any battle lasting one day; Shiloh - the first major Union victory, even though it was mostly a draw, but the South withdrew from the field and lost one of their best generals, Albert Sidney Johnson, (some say their best) during the battle.
 
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Visiting Civil War battlefields. I saw Gettysburg, Antietam and Shiloh on a trip out east with my oldest daughter. We did other fun stuff, and didn't take in nearly as many battlefields as I would have liked, because I got tired of being on the road and just wanted to get home after awhile, but we hit some of the major ones. Gettysburg - the turning point in the war; Antietam - the highest number of casualties in any battle lasting one day; Shiloh - the first major Union victory, even though it was mostly a draw, but the South withdrew from the field and lost one of their best generals, Albert Sidney Johnson, (some say their best) during the battle.
We saw several of these when we lived in Virginia. Took the kids to Gettysburg when they were very young and were shocked by how much they enjoyed it.
 
Son (14) wants to visit every National Park and then National Monument in his lifetime. I would like to share as many of them as I can before I go.

He's only been to 5 of the 63 parks so we have a lot of work to do.
Didn’t know there were 63.
 
We saw several of these when we lived in Virginia. Took the kids to Gettysburg when they were very young and were shocked by how much they enjoyed it.
I was shocked that my oldest daughter enjoyed it. She was 21 at the time and had never shown much interest in history or much of anything really, except for anime and video games, passions that continue to this day at age 33. But she saved every scrap of ephemera (programs, maps, ticket stubs, etc.) from that trip, which included a two-day stop in New York City for a play and walking tours of Little Italy and Chinatown.
 
As a kid, I always enjoyed watching the CMA Awards every fall. I always thought maybe one day, I'd be able to go see them presented in-person. File that away until 2009 when Barbara Mandrell was honored as an inductee to the Country Music Hall of Fame on the broadcast that year. It popped into my head again: "I wonder when tickets go on sale for next year?" So, I did some searching and found out about when they would be available in 2010. I got a single "cheap" seat (NOT cheap), but had such a fun time seeing all the live performances and being right there as the awards were announced with all the stars in the audience below me. Came home and was raving about it to a friend who said she would love to do something like that. I asked, "Do you wanna go next year?" She did. It was just as much fun as it was the first time, but even better because I got to share the experience with someone else! :)
 
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