Bucket Lists - Part One (over 45)

Do you have a bucket list? Do you want one? Should you have one? Is yours full, being filled, being emptied or empty?

I had one that I started in my mid-forties, one of the best times in my life. Recently I came across it and realized I no longer feel the need to keep at it. I've done so much more than many folks, been so blessed to be able to do them.

Here are some of the things that have been crossed off my bucket list, all after age 45:

Learn to ski:
I am not and never have been an athletic individual. Sports were, and still are, a spectator sport for me. This item became an item added to the bucket list after doing it! I was about forty-nine when we bought my nine year old daughter a ski package for Christmas. My husband had been skiing since college and my daughter turned out to be a natural. They kept badgering me to try and I continue to decline.

Then New York State decided to offer the "Ski It to Believe It" campaign. Since it was only twenty-five dollars for a ski rental, a lesson and a lift ticket at a local (small) ski spot, I was determined to show them how bad I was and that would be that.

Well, that wasn't that! I discovered I like it and I wanted more! The next winter we moved from New York to Colorado and I had the chance to ski some real mountains. I never was great, but I always had fun.

Participate in community theater:
Back in the late 1990's, while living in Columbus, GA, I tried out for two plays and got parts in both. I was working full-time as a systems analyst/programmer at Tom's Foods. We had rehearsals five nights a week, then production for ten days. What an amazing time!

~ Pack of Lies: It was a small part as a background actor. I needed a Scottish accent, I opted for semi-British which was the best I could do. We had a director in from NYC and she was amazing to work with.
~ When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?: I had a key role as Clarisse in this and learned so much from our amazing director, a local. I also made some wonderful friends.

Learning to ride a motorcycle:
I had tried back in my mid-twenties and hadn't done all that well. But in the fall of 2001 at the age of 55, while my late husband was getting his six weeks of radiation treatments for his cancer, he spent all his spare time convincing me I needed to learn to ride. We ended up trading in his Electra-Glide for a Softail Heritage and buying me a Sportster.

The road ahead was rocky, lots of spills, lots of learning opportunities, but by the time he passed in October 2004, I had the bike of my dreams.

All my bikes [2003-2013]

Top L-R: 2002 HD Hugger XL883L - 2003 HD Low Rider FXDL - 2005 HD Softail Deluxe FLSTNI
Bottom L-R: 2006 BMW F650GS - 2009 HD Nightster XL1200N - 2011 HD SuperLow XL883L

Visit all fifty states:
I had managed to ride my motorcycle in 42 states in 2005, the year after I was widowed. I had to miss the last six, all New England states, due to weather. Stu, my current husband, and I picked those last six up the summer of 2011. We took a cruise to Alaska in 2010 and one to Hawaii in 2016. Fifty states done!!

See the Rocky Mountains:
Well, this was accomplished several times over. The first was when my late husband and I moved from Rochester, NY to Colorado Springs, CO in 1992-1993. Oh my! There was no photo that had ever done justice to it. Years later, I rode my motorcycle across them and after that, took my little Class C motorhome across them.

Well, that's enough for this post...more to come in part two. Do you have a bucket list? If you do, what are some of the things on it. Have you accomplished any of your list. If not, do you want one? If not, why not?