Bucket List, Do You Have One?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Serious question. Do you have a bucket list, why, what’s on it and have you been able to cross any items off he list?

As my screen name might imply, living a lot longer may not be in the cards. I’m O.K. with it, made my peace and have made the decision to “spend my kid’s inheritance” now. I’ve been blessed with a great family, had a satisfying career and am doing just fine financially.

Mind you, I’m not talking “imminent” and I’ve got some great doctors who have accepted the challange of keeping me going so that I can continue to contribute to America’s healthcare cabal.

So, still on my my bucket list:

Cruise through the Panama Canal
Cruise to Hawaii
Visit/tour Grand Canyon and Hoover Damn (They were closed when we went to Vegas – really. It was right after 9/11 and tours of the Damn and fly-overs of the Grand Canyon were not allowed.)
Go back to Great Britain and finish a tour of the British Isles that my wife and I started 13 years ago.
Bury my mother (Maybe better said, outlive my mother.) She is 90 and has Alzheimer’s and I just don’t want to think about how she might handle my death. I do just about everything for her. She is doing well in a wonderful Sr. Adult Community but …
(And some things I’d just as soon not share.:rolleyes: )

Crossed off the list:

Own and drive a British Roadster. One year ago I took delivery of a brand new 2013 MINI Cooper Roadster, “S” model. Sure, it’s owned by BMW but its still made in Oxford England.
Take the entire family on a vacation together – one they’ll never forget. Accomplished that this summer. 8 adults and 6 children for a week aboard the Allure of the Seas (the world’s largest cruise ship.)

So, what’s on your list?

2

My apologies. Eventually I should get it figured out what goes where.

3

Nope. Dislike the entire idea. If I get hit by a cement truck tomorrow, I want people to say of me that I lived a full life, not that I had so much stuff left undone.

4

Yeah, but my bucket list is as likely to be “who,” as much what or where. :cool:

5

I had never heard the phrase until I saw ads for the movie of the same name, and no, I don’t have one.

Similar to KneadToKnow, I find the concept of living a life with a list of “things still undone” to be an unappealing proposition.

I have things that I want to do, but getting them in “before I die” is not really part of the equation. Plus, considering that once I die I won’t have any idea about what I have or haven’t done, I’m not that concerned about dying tomorrow with vacation destinations yet to visit.

6

I have an informal one - but I’m earlier in my trajectory than you, NotDeadYet.

So mine includes “meet my grandchildren,” “fly in space” and “manage to be alive when there’s proof of extraterrestrial life (which I believe is inevitable)” as well as things like “set foot on all 7 continents,” “attend a World Series game (preferably rooting for the Nationals)” and “go to the top of a volcano.”

7

NotDeadYet: I wish you all the best and am certain you can achieve your goals. I lost my best friend to a sudden and deadly cancer when she was only 38 years old so I know how precious life is and that you only get one chance to fulfill your dreams.

My bucket list started as “The 3 Dreams” when I went back to school at 25 so I could get out of retail and make more than minimum wage:

  1. See Duran Duran in concert - achieved in 2003. Took the bus by myself from Toronto to Cleveland and ended up 3rd row floor.

  2. Take buses and trains to visit my best friend (my best friend since Grade 1, not the one who passed) in Texas - achieved in June 2005.

  3. Get married in Las Vegas - achieved in August 2011.

Bonus “Bucket List” items: Got my picture taken with the Hollywood sign behind me, visited New York City and went up the Empire State Building, and I have seen ALL my favourite bands in concert and saw my favourite song of all time done live.

But my biggest bucket list item and lifelong dream is to “Stay at the Empress Hotel in Victoria, BC.”

…when I was 9 years old my parents took me on the train from Toronto to Vancouver and we spent a few days in Victoria. I remember standing outside the Empress, looking up at it and thinking: “The day I can afford to stay at that hotel is the day I’ve succeeded in life.” That became my benchmark for everything and I’m finally going to do it in October. Along with the Victoria Full Marathon, because “go big or go home.”

After that I only need to go to Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland (then I’ll have been to every province) and go to London, England and the original Hard Rock Cafe. Then I’m done.

8

I had a short one, and I fulfilled it by the time I was 30. Get a PhD, meet and marry a great man, have a child. Done!

Everything else is icing on the cake.

9

30 years ago I was on top of the world. Had my advanced degrees, great job, wife, 3 terrific kids. Today I’m retired, still married (40+ yrs), kids are married, doing great and we have 6 grandchildren. Like I said, I have come to terms and am at peace. With the exception of the car, everything on the “list” is about wanting to do these special things with the people I love.

10

Buy a piece of land, and build a house myself.

11

I thought the concept from the movie was pretty good, but I have only one item.

(1) Visit the Trinity Test site in New Mexico. I’ve always been fascinated by this obscure home of the atomic bomb. It’s open to the public only two days each year. Someday, I’ll make it.

12

See a total solar eclipse. There will be two within a few hundred miles of me, in 2016 and 2023. Both will have totality in different parts of southern Illinois.

I witnessed a partial one in 1994 (60% where I was) and THAT was weird enough.

13

No, I have a ‘Fuck it’ list.

“Fuck it, I’m having another beer.”

14

Not so much a “Bucket list” as a “Wouldn’t mind doing if I ever got around to it” list. about the only thing on it: doing the Cannonball Rally.

15

I should probably see that movie but who has the time?

16

Best username/OP combo ever.

I guess I don’t have a bucket list. I usually have more short-term goals.

17

I’ve always wanted to see Tahiti. Now that I’m retired, it’s becoming more likely.

18

I’d like to visit England. I already know, in my imagination, what the sweating stone steps in the Tower smell like. I’d like to trail the rough wall up with my hand.

19

I’m not retired yet, but I can see the “retirement” sign just over the next few hllls. I’ve been thinking about some of the bucket list items, and which one’s I’ll be able to do now.

MizPullin and I now have (essentially) free airline travel anywhere. We’re still figuring out how to use this perk.

My bucket list items are:

  1. See Hawaii
  2. Visit all the US National Parks
  3. Fly a B-17
  4. Visit all the Texas state parks
  5. Sail (at least some of) the Intracoastal Waterway.
  6. Sail down the Mississippi to the gulf.
  7. Sail down the Laguna Madre*

I’ve accomplished #3 (it’s in my logbook :)), and half of #2 and #4.

*I realize it’s technically part of #5, but I view it separately.

20

I don’t so much have a bucket list as a new focus on collecting experiences. I’m not putting off the things I love to do.

We have an ever growing list of places we’re interested in going to and going back to but there is no intention to ever get to the end of the list since we’re continually adding new destinations and of course many of them end up on the going back to list anyway so no real progress is made. Luckily that’s not the point :smiley: