On this day in 1800, President John Adams signed legislation to appropriate $5,000 to purchase “such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress,” thus establishing the Library of Congress.
I wrote my first version of a bucket list back in 2013.
In eleven years, I’ve managed to tick off a couple of items on the list…in a modified form.
I admit that I chuckle a little bit at the ambitious nature of the original post. I was so much younger and innocent then. But let’s take a look at what I have accomplished.
Go Hike the Canyon – No, I did not make it rim to rim, either hiking or rafting. But I did make it back out there on my Old Man Bucket List Road Trip. Some of you followed the journey on Facebook and Instagram. I’ve been chronicling the trip here on Fridays.
Have My Own Art Show – This one is actually in the works. But while it hasn’t happened yet, I have done a considerable amount of sharing my art through three years of doing the 100 Day Project. Granted, most of those drawings were experimental and inspirational. But they’ve helped me figure out a bit about my style, and just what you might or might not see at that art show. It’s coming.
Publish my novel(s). The novels are still a work in progress. But I have now published my original script Clean Dry Socks: Diary of a Doughboy, which had its premier in 2018. The story is based on my Grandfather’s WWI diary, the original is in the Library of Congress. My script is still available for your theater to produce. Additionally, I’ve self-published four children’s books, and there’s another on the way. The only question that remains here is why the young people in your life don’t have their own copies?
Available on Amazon.
The novels are coming…eventually.
Read the Complete Works of Shakespeare. True confession time. I gave up on this one. But I have spent a good amount of time listening to the Chopped Bard podcast where Ehren Ziegler walks you through the plays providing commentary and explanation.
Be conversant in Spanish. I’m still studying. I could find the bathroom and the train station. I took a break from my studies last year, but I’ve resumed my work on Duolingo.
The rest of the list involves more traveling. I may or may not reach each of the listed destinations, but I’ll keep traveling.
My bucket list has evolved, as have I.
More of that will come post September 1 when I’m fully retired from the day job. Don’t get me wrong. I’m retiring from the day job. I am not stopping work.
And I won’t stop moving.
American singer, actress, activist, and producer, Barbra Streisand, was born on this day in 1942.