Bucket List

Mortality has been on my mind recently. Actually it is on my mind regularly. It is likely that most motorcycle riders have that 'last ride' thought in the back of their heads while the wind whips through their hair. It is a healthy thing, I think.

Well, I learned a new term tonight; a Bucket List. It is simply a list of things one would like to do before they die. It is not a morbid thing, really. Death is the terminus of life. What we do between birth and death define us as individuals and as a culture.

One article I read tonight states that a person should have 100 items in their Bucket List. For me, that seems a bit optimistic, but what the heck.

1. Learn to fly a plane (done, but ran out of money before I could finish)
2. So... Get my pilot's license.
3. Ride a motorcycle to the Arctic Circle.
4. Ride a motorcycle to Barrow, Alaska.
5. Ride a motorcycle cross country. (Done in 2008)
6. Be a published author. (Well, sort of, if an early 90's computer programming magazine counts.)
7. Own a small piece of land where I can raise my own food. I mean OWN. No mortgage; all paid for.
   
8. Build my own house of stone.
9. Refurbish a motorcycle. (Working on that now Project Vixen)
10. Build a super-computer. (Ya, I am a geek and did have one started and running a few years back, but what does one do with a Linux cluster super-computer?)
11. Ride a motorcycle coast to coast in Canada.
12. Ride a 50CC (Coast to coast in the US in 50 clock hours).
13. Ride a 100CC (Coast to coast and back in the US in 100 clock hours).
14. Earn my Iron Butt (1000 miles in 24 hours).
15. Breed orchids and create a new hybrid.
16. Ride the TAT (Trans-American Trail)
17. Circumnavigating Australia on a motorcycle.
    
18. Write a book and have it published.
19. Ride 100,000 miles in a year.
20. Learn more about my Native American heritage. (I am 1/8th Inuit or some other culture from Canada)
21. Learn another language. I already know English and can use sign language respectfully. Maybe Spanish or Russian.
22. Build my own airplane and fly it.
    

Wow. This is rather easy. Unfortunately it is past my bed time; don't want to be grumpy at work tomorrow. There are more.

Oh, and for you wondering; no, I am NOT jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. I will leave that for other adventurers.