Thread "Your Thimble List" in forum "Comic Talk and General Discussion *"

Posted at 7:02PM, Feb. 12, 2009

The principle of The Bucket List is that there should be something really interesting you want to do before you die. I don't have a Bucket List because I pretty much have already done most of the really weird things in life that interest me on a really, truly, WANT to do basis. So, I'm sort of just sort of adding to the decimal points at this stage of my life.

Today I did something that sort of fits into a Thimble List. First know that I'm fifty-two edging up on fifty-three and this battered old body of mine doesn't have the resiliency and ease of movement that once as much mine as the ability to breathe. Okay, truth to tell I once was a pretty good martial artist and then one day, while I was in my thirties, my body turned traitor and deep-sixed what I had been working at making my career. So it goes.

So there I was at one of those huge superstores that is mostly a gigantic warehouse stocked to bulging with necessities and frivolities and, in particular, forty pound containers of cat litter. I wanted one and all I could find was a filled pallet of the stuff sitting above my head height on a steel shelf. In front of the column of shelves on the floor was a waist height pallet of bags of dog food. I could not find an employee willing or able to fetch a forklift to lower the pallet of kitty litter to the floor. Obviously the mature thing to do was to come back another day, and while contemplating the vagaries of life I considered that a mere decade ago I would confidently and with ease have scrambled on top of the pallet of dog food and removed one of those forty pound containers of cat litter and have done with it.

Then it struck me that in another handful of years I wouldn't even have the option. When you are sixty then doing something like that would be dangerous whereas at my current age it was merely stupid. Then I realized that I actually should do this stupid thing simply because I still could and because I probably would be able to do so without hurting myself, and getting away with it would make me feel good. So I shrugged and climbed on top of the dog food bags and reached up and worked a container of kitty litter free from the upper pallet and then lowered it to the dog food bags, got off the bags, and then transferred the kitty litter to the grocery cart. Done!

So although I hadn't known that scoring a container of kitty litter was on my Thimble List, and didn't even know that I even had such a list, none of that matters. The mighty hunter and gatherer successfully did something stupid and felt smugly happy about having done so. Look, I've got my entire future to become progressively weaker and more uncertain on my feet [oh joy!] and so while I still can I should occassionally and cautiously do something mildly stupid but satisfying simply because I still can. Oh, and because I have been married many years, I should also do these things without telling the wife. After all there is stupid and then there is STUPID.

Do you have a little Thimble List, and if so, what's on it, and if not then what might you put on it? :spin:

Posted at 7:02AM, Feb. 13, 2009

Haha. I love ya, but I'm not sure I understand the question! If ya mean "stuff I ought to do now/soon, before it's logistically impossible"?

I want to have a mohawk before I end up with a straight job. I've had some dumb, half-shaven haircuts, I've had dreads, but for some reason, never the 'hawk. Crazy hair cyberpunk extensions would be cool too, but that tends to be a bit pricey, even if you do it yourself. Of course, having weird hair is never "logistically impossible", but it might decrease the odds of me gettin' that professor job I want.

Posted at 9:02AM, Feb. 13, 2009

Well, Charley, since I'm in the same boat as you (I'm fifty) and I too have felt the inevitable and lamentable slowdown of age…the 'Thimble List' has been at the forefront of my thoughts for a long time. Trouble is, at this point I had always assumed I'd be in a position to actually go out and clear off some of my list. Generally one has their life reasonably together by age fifty, has a good working partnership with spouse, and a bit of free time to spare as the kids are grown. So much for THAT idea! Actually, I'm mostly there, except that I am married (happily I hasten to add) to a woman with serious schizophrenia. She is very good about taking her meds ($600.00 a month meds + therapy…) and is pretty much mentally normal–except that the stress of working any kind of actual job (even volunteer jobs) pushes her over the mental cliff. So I've had to accept that we are going to have to get along as a one income family–and that limits me in my Thimble List endeavors.
I'd like to hang-glide or even do some wing gliding base jumps. (I already have 50 mil and 25 civ para-jumps.) I'd like to built a flying wing that I have actually designed…I'd like to go 'on the road' for a year or so in my camper. I'd like to go back to Ireland for a visit or two–England as well. I'd like to spend some more time in the saddle. Funny how things get more difficult every year…
So that's my list…still waiting for the grand-kids to arrive….eppp!

Posted at 9:02AM, Feb. 13, 2009

i really dont have a "i want to do this before i die"

but i would like to become fit enough to do pararescue, before too long.

Posted at 1:02PM, Feb. 13, 2009

Definitely getting some travel in. I pretty much live within the same 5 block radius of my home and school without a car so I start to feel pretty numb and isolated by the end of each week when I finally can leave that are. Somehow, with school it never happens.

I'd also like to be able to get back to the point where I can sprint a 1/4 mile without being winded. At one point in my life I want to honestly be able to say I'm in good physical condition and not just at an acceptable level of fitness.

My primary goal though is to simply be able to have freedom. The idea of spending my life in a single job, area, mindset and having much of anything that other people would qualify as "stability" terrifies the living crap out of me. I want the day to come that I have the freedom to go where I feel and do what I do best. I just don't really have a clue how to make it happen. I know I want a home with a studio that doesn't also qualify as my bedroom or a shared space and the opportunity to live in a way that I don't feel like I'm repeating myself each day.

I guess it kind of shows that I'm a 20 year-old art student with a good dose of idealism and dreams. I just want to see if I can make them happen instead of becoming old and complacent.

Posted at 2:02PM, Feb. 13, 2009

Eh, mine is more pathetic, but I'm young (26), so I haven't experienced most things. I call this the "before I'm 40" list.

~I want to have a first kiss and a boyfriend before I get too much older. (I sorta skipped that part of life while I was in school.) I really want to "fall in love" but if that doesn't happen, I at least want to experience kissing.
~I want my own place with my own bathroom. The closest I've come to independence is a dormroom (and I had to share a bathroom etc.)
~I want to get in some camping/hiking while I'm still in moderately good shape. Nothing too major, just some time in the woods.
~I have been trying to get into moderately good shape. I can walk two miles without any trouble and have good overall health, but I'm quite overweight, and I want to fix that before it actually does inhibit my health. I know it will be very difficult to do when I'm older.
~I'd like to raise a puppy someday–after I'm financially secure enough and have my own place, of course. I hope I'm still relatively young when I do so, so I can keep up with it.
~I want to live somewhere that gets a LOT of snow (Colorado, upstate New York, etc.) while I'm still young enough to find snow fun and beautiful rather than an annoyance.

Um, a job would be great, since I don't have one and am SO sick of jumping through the job application hoops over and over and over again. It's not exactly a dream of mine, though. If I could survive independently and do all the things I want without one, I'd be just as happy.