How Much Of The Attainable Bucket List Was Attained? (and some links)

My three avid readers may remember that I made a list of ten things that I wanted to accomplish over the summer months.  This is my report card, or as one of my hippie dippy college professors called it, my ‘self evaluation.’  I’ll go over each of the items and either explain how I succeeded gloriously, or how I failed gloriously.  We don’t do mediocre.  Here we go.

1. Learn Spanish with the kids.  Ummm.  We did do some learning, but not nearly enough to survive on the run in South America.  I will continue to put effort in this area because being on the run in South America sounds like a great adventure, and I want to be prepared.
2. Build a killer treehouse.  Success.  It has a trap door and a rope ladder.  It will soon have a pirate flag.  I may have gone a little overboard.  I think it has more square footage than my first apartment.
3. Get some arrows.  Success.  I found a bunch of arrows at the awesome local thrift shop.  I am proud to report that no one went to the emergency room.  Even when we started shooting the arrows straight up in the air.  I would also like to report that the neighbors cat (the one who keeps pooping in my mulch) is much faster than he looks.
4. Take the kids to the Statue of Liberty.  Success.  We had a great time exploring Ellis Island and walking around the statue.  If you end up going there on a day trip, take a lunch.  If you don’t, you will end up having to take out a home equity loan to feed your family of four.
5. See a movie in the park.  Twice we planned.  Twice we were rained out.  Attempt made.
6. Attend Reggae in the Park.  I forget why, but I just didn’t make it.  I’m sure that it was less fun simply because I wasn’t there.
7. Spend lot of time at the local library.  Success.  My kids read a lot.  I won’t say they knew us by name over there because I was mostly avoiding eye contact or chasing my youngest through the stacks, but if you went to the desk and asked for the guy who comes in every week and always tells his boys no when they want to buy candy,,,, they’d know who you were talking about.
8. Take the boys to two movies in one day.  Success,,, kind of.  Okay, so we didn’t see two movies in one day.  What I did do was find coupons for the new Avengers movie, make a bag of my own popcorn, fill my own water bottle,  and cram it into a shoulder bag.  Whole movie experience= $14.00.  DAD WIN.
9. Keep the car clean all summer.  No one caught Legionnaires disease or tuberculosis from riding in our car, so I’m calling it a success.
10. Finish my book.  Not done yet but it’s coming along.

Six out of ten.  That’s a bad test score but a great batting average.  It’s all about perspective.

LINKS

• Some people put together a really creepy haunted house out in California.  You have to sign a waiver before you go in.  Here is the promo video.  Warning:  It’s creepy and there are a lot of pigs.
• Remember that famous Alcatraz escape in 1962?  Family members of some of the inmates are saying that they actually survived their swim in the bay.
• October 17th, 2015 is Bridge Day at the New River Gorge in West Virginia.  One year I took a rafting trip that ended underneath the bridge.  We sat there for a couple hours watching people hurl themselves off the 876 foot high span.  It’s worth the trip if you ever get a chance.  Here is some footage from last year’s event.
• I started with creepy and I’ll end with creepy.  Here is a slideshow of cool ghost towns.