Bucket Lists

Thinking is extremely contagious here in the blogosphere.  Someone leaves a comment that you brush by in your haste to keep up … then a week later, it explodes into a post.   Or you read a post you like somewhere and are suddenly compelled to post on the same subject.  Recently, I read The Retirement Bucket List on listen to the sun rise, and here I am, writing about Bucket Lists.   I suspect that the term Bucket List … a list of things to do before you Kick the Bucket … predates the 2007 film of the same same but I can’t find any evidence to support my suspicions.   It probably doesn’t matter.   The film, in which Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) and Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson) … two strangers who meet in the hospital as they find out they have terminal cancer … set out to fulfill their own to-do lists before they die, has brought the term Bucket List into common usage.  Here’s their list from ListAfterList.com:

An Old Fashioned Seeker

I am fortunate to belong to a fellowship composed of men whose spiritual beliefs run the gamut from nearly agnostic to fully religious.  Recently, after a meeting that seemed to focus on members’ difficulties finding a God they could believe in, a friend asked me, I don’t get it.  Why do so many guys have trouble finding God?   Another member, years ago, said, I think I’m actually an agnostic but my life works better when I act as if I believe in a Higher Power.   The words Let Go and Let God comprise a complete sentence to some but lead others to add Do What?   Because each of us can lay bare our spiritual selves without being sold another’s point of view, each of us grows spiritual by taking what we like and leaving the rest.   Still, I was surprised last week as we were discussing Spirituality that three or four men spoke without ever mentioning God … or at least God’s less threatening persona, a Higher Power.   I would have … and did

Living Amends

Twenty years ago, my friend Ron and I were technical directors for the development and upgrade of a dipping sonar program. A dipping sonar is essentially a very large microphone that is lowered into the water from a helicopter in order to find submarines. The Navy was seeking a new processor board (computer) for the system. Our company had developed such a board which made winning the job seemed almost certain, so Ron and I were assigned to lead the proposal effort. In a big company, it takes several hundred thousand dollars to crank up the proposal writing process, so deciding to bid on a job isn’t taken lightly. We put together what we believed was an excellent proposal and optimistically sent it off. Two months later, we received a letter informing us not only that we hadn’t won, we were technically non-compliant.   Ron and I had both missed a single requirement in the

Trusting

Last week, Muri and I spent the morning at our attorney’s office reviewing the Living Trust we’re having reworked.  In case you haven’t guessed yet, Muri is my wife.  I’ve decided that after two years of Older Eyes – Bud’s Blog, she deserves to have a proper name beyond my wife.  I suppose she could have been Mrs. Older Eyes but while it seems perfectly appropriate to name oneself Older Eyes, it’s probably injudicious to so name your wife.  So, it’s Muri, short for Muriel.  With that settled, it’s back to the attorney’s office.

Don’t Get Caught

In our it’s-OK-if-everyone-does-it society, you’ve undoubtedly heard someone say something to the effect of, It’s not cheating if you Don’t Get Caught.  Or even It’s not illegal if you Don’t Get Caught. It may have been after a basketball player flopped to the floor without ever being touched, drawing a foul, or it may have been when Derek Jeter pretended to be hurt after an errant pitch hit the wrong end of the bat but not his hands.   More seriously, it could have been a friend, talking about taking deductions for charitable contributions he never made on his tax returns or a high school kid in McDonalds, bragging about cheating on a test using his iPhone.

Solitude Together

Older Eyes is on retreat … fifty guys gathered together in the hills near Santa Ynez, California at the lovely and remote San Lorenzo Seminary … we have Solitude Together.  This is our last year there, the Capuchins are closing the facility to retreats.  I’ll miss the beauty of the place but we’ll be just fine.   The retreat is the men not the place.  But I thought I’d share a few pictures from past years.

The Road to San Lorenzo

The Welcome Gate

The Retreat Center

The View from the Point

Hazy Afternoon

Headed Home

 

If You Were Spock

Friday was my designated Tax Day, the day I pore through the paper work my wife has meticulously collected, my own less organized pile and assorted online stuff to come up with the numbers I need to give my accountant. It is one of my least favorite days of the year, one that has the potential triple my anxiety level. To distract myself as I work, I usually rent a few movies to play in the background … but if I rent movies I haven’t seem, I’ll be too distracted. So, I rent movies that I’ve already seen and liked. Friday, I rented the 2009 film, Star Trek. What’s not to like? Time travel through black holes, a vengeful villain, the Star Trek crew perfectly cast at a younger age, and great special effects.    And the coup de gras, Spock at seventy meeting himself at twenty, advising his younger self to stop being such a freaking Vulcan and feel like a human more often. Well, that’s more or less what he said.

Monday Smiles – 3/7/2011

Whatever nasty little bug swept through my insides starting on Thursday seems to have departed, just in time.  Bananas, rice and toast were getting old.   Yes, I know the acronym is BRAT but I can’t convince myself that applesauce is a good choice with intestinal ailments, as much as my wife and the internet insist it is.  I suppose I’d be in trouble if I said it was an old wives’ tale.   But I’m feeling better, thank you very much.  That alone is enough to bring a Monday Smile.  Yes, I’m still eating cautiously, just to be sure.

Soul Music 2011

I’m a bit under the weather today … nothing serious but uncomfortable.   My nephew, Dave is coming to visit … I’m going to need my energy to be a good host.  So, I’m going to repost an updated version of Soul Music (mostly added links), my second post after starting Older Eyes – Bud’s Blog two years ago.  Soul Music had one comment and a half-a-dozen views so chances are it’s new to most everyone.  Hope you enjoy.

2½ Views of Waiting

Sometimes in my Thursday Night Men’s Group, somebody will pick a subject that leaves me cold, so I just listen.  Following such a Thursday night, two things can happen: I forget all about it; or I discover myself turning the subject over and over in my mind in the weeks that follow, wishing I’d said this or that.  Three weeks ago, someone suggested we talk about, What do you do while you’re waiting? Innocuous, right?  But it seems to have exploded in my brain like a thought-bomb.   The truth is, we’re always waiting for something, whether it’s the check that’s in the mail, the elusive job offer or for our spouse to be in a better mood.  And sometimes, we can grow impatient with the wait, so impatient, in fact, that we’ll take impetuous … and perhaps unwise … action to end it.