Denver International Airport
Snowy Peaks Whatever the Season

I have been in the States for… maybe a week now… more, I think, and time has collapsed in on itself. Flying into DIA and retrieving the car after a month of barge life at 4K/hr. was a shock to my system. Just how was I to drive out of the airport and immediately zoom off in dense bumper-to-bumper traffic at 75 MPH? I managed… but just.

I’m having trouble getting up to speed. My body rhythms are out of whack. For those of you who remember vinyl, I’m stuck at 33 rpm. I can’t seem to plan and when I do plan, I cancel.

And so I garden and doze in the sun. Not productive, but restorative. The Valley is in shades of green to rival a Sherwin-Williams paint palette.  How long it will last is anybody’s guess. Our snow pack was 50 % below normal this winter, so it won’t be green for long.

Traveling as much as I have this past six months, I’ve heard any number of people mention the outstanding items on their Bucket List. Usually it is a lengthy list of things that they want to do before they kick-the-bucket.

Today a friend emailed a suggested bucket list. I was to put an X next to all the things that I had already done. Apparently, those items without an X would be good candidates to add to my list.

Some of the suggestions were quite good. I liked “Watched someone die, Cried yourself to sleep, Paid for a meal with coins only, Been skinny-dipping, Gone to a drive-in movie, and Watched puppies or kitten being born.” I’ve done all those things.

I have not visited Africa, Hawaii, Cuba, South America, Asia or Fiji. I have not played cops and robbers or camped in a trailer/RV. Nor have I tried bungee-jumping, stolen any traffic signs or climbed a fourteener. Color me boring, but I have never gone curling or gone on a blind date.

As I look at these choices, they don’t call out to me. I much prefer the list prepared by the National Trust, “50 Things to Do Before You’re 11 and 3/4.” www.nationaltrust.org.uk/50things. I am saving the booklet for my granddaughter Winnie who is eight years old and has three and a half years to check some activities off her list.

Susan Raymer
“A bird in the hand…”

The list includes such winners as “Roll down a really big hill, Build a den, Run around in the rain, Eat an apple straight from a tree, Dam a stream, Set up a snail race, Watch the sun wake up, Find some frogspawn, Bring up a butterfly” and my favorite, “Feed a bird from your hand.”

I’m older than 11 and 3/4, but the National Trust activities appeal to me more than stealing a traffic sign. My time is near. If I’m going to feed a bird out of my hand, I’d better get out in the garden and begin the courtship.