Daily Prompt: What is the 11th item on your bucket list? Nicholson and Freeman

Cover of The Bucket List

When Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman starred in the movie The Bucket List society pulled one of their ‘HEY lets grab on to these words because its s.o darn cute and lets assume everyone needs to at least pretend they have a bucket list, and then let’s just say the words repeatedly even if we have to force it into conversation.  The same thing happened with the use of Paradigm or rather the overuse of it.  Another word over used currently is Meme.

The idea of a bucket list is fine but it just doesn’t excite everyone and what happens is that those who don’t have a list but want to fit in are forced to make a list.  And making a list of ten things (who the heck decided 10 was the magic number anyway?) can be taxing on one’s inners – souls, psyches etc etc etc….  Then at least nine things are listed that you don’t really ever want to do but you must be able to produce to be ‘acceptable’.  Then of course you start to feel guilty that you really don’t want to do any of them.  Then comes the challenge of adding Mystique.  At least one item must be nefarious, vague, baffling to an outsider and requiring explanation such as ‘Kiss the most beautiful girl in the world. as Nicholson eventually did.  To make the  list indeed a list then you must add a total of ten to fit in.

I loved the movie.  I love the idea of lists – if they work for you.  If making a list and then actually going and completing tasks and stroking off work for you then that is wonderful.

It doesn’t work quite that way for me.  I have faced my mortality and the best I could do at that time was to express immense gratitude for waking up and still be breathing.  I have no far away lands drawing me, no great adventures calling.

I love how some self important people no longer talk at great length about Bucket Lists, they just slip it into conversation, ‘Oh yes we completed our trip around the moon.  It was after all the fourth item on our bucket list.’  Soft, subtle, but just a wee bit of an air of that old monster conceit.

It’s strange that I truly admire and envy those who not only embrace A Bucket list but who also do check things off.  We all search for what we think we are looking for or should be looking for and for me these days it seems to be more of an inward search rather than external targets.

So what is my 11th item on my bucket list?

Beats me.  I would rather read about yours!

Related articles

• My Bucket List (simplybrittaknee.wordpress.com)
• Translating Bucket Lists (mraybould.wordpress.com)
• Kicking It (Daily Prompt) (yasminezikry.wordpress.com)

The Night I Slept with Jack…or Jack Slept with Me..or Maybe not…

So as you know we have 3 whites.  Not great whites as in the sharks, but whites as in the cats.

I have spoken of these beasties before.  Jack is King with a capital K.  He can be a bit nasty taking a swipe at your ankles as you walk by him.  He likes to assert his power..his territory.  Then we have dear Jewels who is your typical subserviant please just stay out of my way kind of girl.  She lets Jack reign and I say ‘lets’ because I do believe if this dear lady ever decided to stake territory no one else would reign.

Jack needs to reign.  It is important to his ego.  He even bullies Bree who is away this week with the family at the cottage.  Now as you know we have Gus who is pretty new to it all.  So far Jack seems to be happy to just watch over the newcomer kitten although he is not above giving the kid a swat when needed.

Now Jack does not like me very much and for the life of me I don’t know why.  If I am in the kitchen he stretches out across the floor letting me know I am in his territory.  And he was forever taking swats at me; walking down the stairs, down the hall..well you get the idea.

Now this week, with his whole adoring family gone it is just me, Jewels, and the new kid Gus.  The family have been gone almost a week and tonight is the first time Jack decided to spend anytime major time with me.

Gus and Jack routinely wrestle around, most often in play but J always asserts his power when he becomes bored with the new kids antics and that pretty much ends the game of the moment.

Except tonight.  I am not sure if Jack sort of figures I am the new sheriff in town permanently but he decided to spread his territory.  Except Gus, the kid, has been used to sleeping on my bed at least for part of the night.

So first Gus makes himself at home beside me on the bed.  The evening is wearing on and before you know it, who makes an entrance but Jack.  He stands on the floor for a bit watching me and the kid, settling down for a bit of a read before slumbers.  Then he jumps up on the bed, my bed you understand, and sits at the foot watching us.

I’m figuring it could be very nice to tell the family, when they return that Jack and I are A1 buds.  That we slept together in perfect harmony.  Then all of a sudden there is one swift motion and a whole bunch of white fur and a bit of growling ensue.  Right beside me!

Believe it or not there really are two whites there.  Not sure what to do I remain very very very still.  Suddenly Jack jumps back and leaping from the bed leaves the room.  Gus, the new kitten in town settles and stretches out making it clear where his territory is. I tried taking photos at which point they both left my boudoir.

Guess I won’t be sleeping with Jack after all.  As for Jewels?  Well she could care less.  Her only staked out territory is my desk chair and neither of the other two seem interested.  So it all works out for her.

Men! Animal, Vegetable or Mineral.  So territorial.

Cabin Fever

So the whole week has been a snuggy one staying inside and being warm in the face of winter and by this morning I awoke and thought, Oh no, its Cabin Fever~

Time to get out..head out on the highway…looking for adventure…OK back to the reality of it all…it meant a trip to Kitchener.  My SIL who is one of my besties has spent the last three weeks in Rome, Nairobi and Amsterdam and finally, finally after 3 weeks came home.  I like travel, but I have to say three weeks is way toooo long.

Anyway she got home yesterday so off I go this morning.  Cold..minus something..but the roads were clear..which is a biggie…had lunch and met her this afternoon.  Quite disgusting really as she looked younger and more vital than pretrip although she insisted being on the verge of exhaustion.  I should look so good when exhausted!

It dawned on me while driving home later in the day how wonderful my  life is.  I have the extreme pleasure of loving and being loved by wonderful people mostly because if love had to do with deserving it I would have none.  There is so much I would change if I had it to do over again..but since it seems there are no do overs…then I am doubly blessed.

Somehow there is a worth that we may believe is not deserved but somehow it is deserved.  And that my friends who doubt miracles, is the miracle.

Thoughts on Reusing the Reusable

Thoughts on Reuse

I was looking at pill bottles the other day.  You know, the little round ones the pharmacists put your medications in.

It wasn’t the bottles themselves that first caught my attention, it was the labels that are stuck on with cement and cannot be removed with heat, water or a force of nature.  It occurred to me that when man is done with life on this planet, when all other plastic finally disintegrates, those little brown bottles with a two inch piece of paper stuck to them will still be floating around.

The worst of it is the private information that cannot be destroyed; your name, your medication, your doctor.  You can shred your mail to keep information private but your life sustaining secrets cannot be destroyed.

So that got me thinking about reusing those little brown bottles.  Why can’t they be reused?  Why do  we have to throw them out after one use?  It strikes me that it is a waste to the millionth degree.

Just stop to think about how many bottles we are talking about.  I have one prescription a month, a minor medication but a necessary one.  So for me that is twelve wasted bottles a year and in the last fifteen years there are 180.  That still may not seem like much to you, but I did an informal survey among my friends and acquaintances and the people that I know get three to eight bottles filled a month.  Never mind the exorbitant cost of the medication itself, just think about the container cost.

Now I bet that if all these wee bottles were recycled and reused we could save money on the over all cost.  And if for some reason these particular bottles cannot be reused then surely there are some bright bunnies out there that could design a reusable bottle.

The fact that I can use a permanent marker to obliterate personal information is of no consequence.  Somebody must be able to explain why the waste, why the clutter?

Mama I am Promptless!

Good Ol Mama

This week’s prompts and I got nuthin!

.) Girls Night Out! Describe the last time you got to hang out with your friends? What stops you from doing this more often?
2.) If Social Media died tomorrow, describe another hobby you might get into.
3.) Share a Summer Camp memory.
4.) We’re too old to be getting in trouble…aren’t we? Write about a time you were scolded…as an adult.
5.) Barefoot and hormonal…describe an incident that upset you when you were pregnant, but now looking back makes you laugh.
 
Mama I am Promptless!!!
 
Oh my! My nightmare has come true. Prompts yes Inspiration No. I am museless, clueless.
What am I to do?
 
Girls’night out? Yes without a doubt the best at an old four hundred year old country bar, Commercial by name, but home just the same. Beer. music, dance, and maybe by chance, a cowboy.
 
Social media died? I cried. Or not. Then to the street corner, speaker’s corner to spread my message far and wide.
 
Summer camp? It was damp. And buggy and hot and a snake crawled out of our portipot.
 
Old and in trouble? Don’t break my bubble cause trouble and scolding just keeps molding.
 
Barefoot and hormonal? Oh Lord it’s just normal. Preggie and menopausal and all things between.
 
So Mama I fail you and I fail me. When I find that muse he is getting such a beating!
 

Sailing Through Life – Yacht or Dinghy?

Smooth Sailing

Sailing Through Life – Yacht or Dinghy?

 

There are many ways to sail through life and not all include seas, ports, and ahoy matey or daily portions of rum.  How well we sail is influenced not just by our skills and acumen but also by the forces of nature around us.  Sometimes we find ourselves adrift, afloat and unattached not sure where our port is.  This serves a purpose as it gives us the opportunity to look skyward or inward for direction or to wallow for no reason at all.

 Occasionally we may find ourselves bilged on our anchor so the anchor cable runs under the hull boxing the compass when the winds are constantly shifting and we may be tempted to claim Cape Horn Fever, which is a fake illness malingerers pretend to have.  Any excuse I guess when the storms of life just get to be too much.

 And of course there are the times we experience The Captain’s Daughter, which is a term, used for the cat o’nine tails when we just feel beaten all up by life and wonder if succumbing to Davy Jones’ Locker would be an option.

 The intent of this post initially was to post on my sailing … that is garage saling  experience of yesterday.  Of course I got caught up in the whole Wikipedia Nautical Term Search and got carried away.  Again.  But look how much I have learned!

 Other than life I have no sailing/nautical experience.  Never been on a boat of any size or description so I must apologize to any seamen/sea people out there who I may have offended by my flagrant abuse of terms.

 But it has made me think about this voyage we are all on and to assess just how I am maneuvering those seas.  My boat/ship seems to have sprung a leak but it does this often enough that I am sure I can weather it.

 The Garage Sale/Sail?  Went fine, smooth sailing all the way, and for the life of me I cannot believe the stuff that people will buy.  But my friends did okay and we got through the day without a drop of rain.

 Thank you once again Photobucket and my reliable friend Wikipedia!