My Bucket List

Post on 1 April, 2020 by Dallin Malmgren

Pho­to by Dallin

Lots of peo­ple have buck­et lists. Some are quite obses­sive about check­ing the items off. My approach is more casu­al. This buck­et list is prob­a­bly about ten years old. I used to do a Buck­et List assign­ment in my Advanced Cre­ative Writ­ing class, so, of course, I had to do mine. I came across it recent­ly. I thought it would be inter­est­ing to see how I’ve been doing. Not sure how much it will inter­est my read­er, except that it might inspire you to get out yours and see how you’re doing. Even bet­ter, it might inspire you to make one. By the way, the com­ments are my update on how I’m doing.

Dallin Malmgren’s Buck­et List (cir­ca 2009)

–I want to walk the Augus­ta Nation­al golf course. Nope. Not going to hap­pen, at least not this year.
–I want to swim in the Aegean Sea. Damn! We had a cruise of the Greek islands sched­uled for October.
–I want to be struck by light­ning on the golf course (death). Still how I would most like to die.
–I want to pub­lish three more books. Well, I did self-pub­lish them on the internet.
--I want to save someone’s life. I think I did, once…but that was long ago.
–I want to stay up on a wind­surf­board for two full min­utes. Tried it once…lasted maybe 45 sec­onds, hard­ly moving!
–I want to play golf in Scot­land. This could hap­pen. My broth­er-in-law loves golf, and the two sis­ters would love to go to Scotland!
--I want to eat pig that has been cooked on a spit. Nope. I would real­ly like to do this one.
–I want to go to the U.S. Open ten­nis tour­na­ment. Had a chance and didn’t take it.
–I want to attend all my nieces’ and nephews’ wed­dings. All good so far.
--I want to go to Hawaii with Karen. Yes! We did a lit­tle over a year ago!
–I want to teach ten­nis to a grand­child. My son is such a bet­ter teacher than I am.
--I want to cook a gourmet meal. I say I’ve done that—depends on your def­i­n­i­tion of gourmet.
–I want to dance unin­hib­it­ed­ly. Sigh. I so wish!
–I want to have a retire­ment par­ty. Ours was at the Pour Haus in New Braunfels—absolute blast!
–I want to ride a bicy­cle 100 miles in two days. Not going to happen.
--I want to have a Clemens ten­nis reunion. Too long ago, too far scat­tered. Should have done it when I was still teaching.
–I want to buy my wife an expen­sive piece of jew­el­ry. Hon­est­ly, she doesn’t want one.
–I want to back­pack some­where rugged. Again, too old.
–I want to shoot my age in golf. If I can stay healthy, I think this is a possibility.
–I want to win a ten­nis tour­na­ment. Did once, long ago.
–I want to give a eulo­gy (not my fam­i­ly!). Don’t real­ly want to do that anymore.
–I want to go to Aus­tralia. Some day.
–I want to take a cruise. Alas­ka! It was pret­ty, but I dis­cov­ered I am not a cruise person.
–I want to see Mt. Rush­more. Still haven’t. Still want to.
–I want to live a week in a strange city. Can’t decide which city.
–I want to talk with an expert bar­tender. I’ve got my own rotation—don’t see the need as much.
–I want to see all three of my chil­dren have suc­cess­ful careers. And they’ve done it, bless them!
–I want to reach my mag­ic num­ber. Can’t remem­ber what a mag­ic num­ber is!
–I want to grow the entire meal that I eat. Haha! Boy was I dream­ing on that one!
–I’d like to live alone on a moun­tain­top for a week. Doesn’t seem like­ly, does it?
–I want to walk the Ore­gon trail. Do hikes in Bend count?
–I want to see Bruce Spring­steen in con­cert. Prob­a­bly won’t, but he real­ly is the best per­former I’ve ever seen (on video).
–I want to catch a shark. Don’t care about that one anymore.
–I want to shoot a skeet. I tried, but I don’t think I hit any.
–I want to, I need to, I have to make a hole in one. Not yet, but I feel like I have God’s promise on that one.
–I want to eat every burg­er on the Texas Month­ly list. I think I tried 4 and then lost the list.
–I want to have a blog that gets lots of hits. Got the blog—the lots of hits seems ego­tis­ti­cal to me now.
–I want to col­lab­o­rate on a song. Me and Alyssa Leland wrote a coun­try music song, Who’s gonna mow your lawn when I’m gone?
–I want to study William Faulkn­er. Nope. I bogged down on The Sound and the Fury.
–I want to read The His­to­ry of Civ­i­liza­tion. Now I’ll set­tle for one volume.
–I want to see Stone­henge. Saw a fake one out­side of Kerrville—that’s good enough.
–I want to see where they filmed The Lord of the Rings. (Helm’s Deep?) Maybe when I go to Australia.
–I want to learn to abide in Jesus. Still learning.

Comments

  • Reply

    I want to back­pack some­where rugged. Again, too old.

    *snorts* I know of a cou­ple of 85 year olds that were hik­ing the John Muir Trail for the 50th anniver­sary of the First time they did it. 

    You can still hike a good rugged trail. Trust me on that. The only hard part is the logistics. 

    Don’t believe me? Go read Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods.” And then go pick a por­tion of the AT to go hike.

    Scott Taggart2 April, 2020
  • Reply

    Love the list and the com­ments about the sta­tus. I think I made a buck­et list once, ? I’ll have to think where I put it? You should make an extra effort to see the Boss, before he retires. I saw him on the Born in the USA tour and it was to date the BEST con­cert I’ve ever attended.

    Gina Bennett2 April, 2020

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