Some of the plants are already starting to show some Autumnal colours. It’s only August….

It’s 131 days to Christmas. In normal times 131 days sounds like ages. I suspect this year it may not seem such a generous amount of time for many people, including parents. Pandemic rules, shopping restrictions, reduced product availability, money just that bit tighter, many still isolating. Plus remember last year – one of Hawklads presents was ordered in November and finally arrived in March. Yep this might be a challenge. I think I need to write a list. Yes I am good at doing lists. Unfortunately I am not so good at following list. And as for trying to find those lists after a few days – I’m a complete disaster. I need a list to help find the lists.

Occasionally I do stumble across long forgotten lists. I found one recently dating back 15 years. It was a list of mountains I had set myself a goal of climbing. 60 bucket list climbs. 15 years and I had ticked three as climbed. Another one had been attempted but I had to turn round near the top as I came across someone who had hurt their knee. So ended up helping her back down. So that’s 4. In my book just attempting a climb and coming back in one piece counts as ticking it off. Basically been stuck on 56 to go for years now. That’s another one of my great lists just basically gathering dust. Maybe I can change the wording on that list. How about 56 bucket list climbs that I will never complete. Change the wording and suddenly the list is completed. I can then bin it.

But no. The original list went back into the cupboard. A bit of paper soon to be lost again. This time I took a photo of the 56 climbs still to be attempted. Actually added a couple of Himalayan mountains to the list – might as well make it more sexy. The list is on my iPad now. So it won’t be lost and actually it might be a rare useful Gary list. It’s a great reminder that I’ve STILL got stuff to do and achieve in my life. It might seem like that I have not yet ticked off many things from my life lists but from today that CAN start to change.

65 thoughts on “Lists”

  1. I too have lists of incomplete task. Am so glad, that you have a zeal to complete it. Me on the other hand has given up. Maybe one day i may find that excitement and energy to finish them off.

    Meanwhile I have achieved other things which I never planned on. So, I think life is surprising in its own ways, but also disappoints.
    All the best for your list !
    Take care.

    Regards,
    Rupa.

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    2. You both never know, someday such things may become possible again. I have never had a bucket list, as such. No goals, no need to have goals. I take life as it comes. There is always something new around every corner.
      If ever I had a “goal,” it was to find my own spirituality, and discovrr how that fit into my life. Not to sound cocky, but I have done that. My Spirituality into My Life. Not having anything to do with others, just me. I believe spirituality is different for everyone.
      I have climbed up a few mountains, not necessarily to the top, but I have no idea what their names are. I have accomplished things im my life, because they were there–I never set out to do them. I have been bad, I have been good. While I remember, I do not keep track. Am I the weird one, or the sane one. Guess we’ll never know…

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      2. I guess it’s called spontaneity, or spur-of-the-moment. I don’t suppose in Yorkshire it is possible to “get lost.” Nothing is so far away from anything or anyone else. Here, in northern Alberta, getting lost is the norm. Turn onto any gravel roadway, go two intersections and turn left, or three intersectoons and turn right. Often you run out of intersections for miles. We did this last week just for a jape, and dead ended so many times, with just one place to turn–only one direction to turn, after about a 100 kms we finally found the definitive dead end in the absolute middle of nowhere. In 100 kms we passed two farms, both in the first 75 kms. So the last 25 we just followed the only road possible. It went, but it went nowhere. Why did someone build it? Why was it still being frequently used? We could find no sign of human industry at its end. Not even a dump place for dead bodies. No footpaths, no hidden trails, no signs of off-road vehicles.
        A true mystery. Yet someone knew!
        Who?

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  3. Thanks for the reminder about Christmas. The media usually start the countdown at day 150.
    Need to check by card box and make sure I have enough for this year………. and next. It is going to be a quiet one for many I think, but for us, not much of a change.
    Good to make a list. Hubby is King in that department.

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  5. I make a list of things I want to complete every day. I carry them around in a notebook that I keep notes in as well. I also have the “bigger picture” lists like you. I save all my old notebooks so I can see my old notes here and there and see those bigger picture lists because you are right, a lot of stuff hasn’t gotten done. I moved them to my “to do” list so I can see what I might have missed. I am happy that you have read your list again and have marked it to be accomplished. There is still a lot of goals you are going to reach!

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  7. Of course you have things still to do. Never lose sight of that. I did smile at the, ‘in my book just attempting a climb and coming back in one piece counts as ticking it off.’ Cos actually that is very true.

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      1. It is right enuff. Sometimes that’s like five hours just getting to the foot of a hill too. Then there’s the weather sometimes and the wandering off course. I am not going to talk about the time we descended hundreds of feet on a deer fence and then? Then the reward was that what looked like a sort of mountain field at the end of it was a forest of cut trees. Oops I just did. But at least I never mentioned the 90 mins it took to clamber that mile over them….

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      2. So true. I remember walking up Schiehallion. Loved the first half of the walk. Then the weather hit and it was a blizzard. Complete white out at the top. Scrambling on my hands and knees to try and find the top. Absolute nightmare. Was it worth it, NO. Should have turned round and it would have gone down as a great day rather than a nightmare.

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      3. Well, it can get like that. We did Buchaille Etive Mhor in a monsoon once. No other word for it. Like that we got in behind a guided party, being smart and thinking this way we won’t wander off course, what is more, look at these guys kitted like we never saw. As it got worse and worse, they started one by one, to sit down and have their ‘piece.’ Clearly as it went on it was obvi they had down more than sat down. They’d gone back down and finally after the– like– 40 folks we’d counted there that day, there was just us. You couldn’t see a bloody thing. The Mr got hypothermia and started listing to port and my waterproof zip broke. Eventually three members of the Glasgow Hill Walking club loomed out the mist coming over some other ridge and we all went to the summit together. They say the views are spectacular. I wouldnae know and I’m no going back either to find out either, after the carry on to get the Mr down that mountain. Done Schiehallion and you are right. Blizzards like nothing on earth there. But on a good day there is nothing like it and even on abad day, well you get a giggle after.

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  9. I love your positive attitude and most certainly lists do help us identify our goals. I think you are presently climbing the biggest mountain of all in raising your son alone and in the midst of extra-challenging issues that this pandemic has forced on all of us. I see you climbing with humour and aplomb and so admire you and cheer you on. Sometimes life itself is the mountain.

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    2. This is what I do not get? What is the purpose of a goal? Why should it matter if you reach one? Living every day to make it back into bed at night is a satisfying accomplishment to me. Goals complicate life to no end!

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  11. I feel like my life is just beginning. I have plans to run away from home in 10 years or sooner. I have a carefree adventure planned.
    There’s ALWAYS more fun ti be had until we take our last breaths.

    I lose lists. If I need to REALLY remember something, I write it on my hand.😂💌💌

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      1. Well… if you do, you should maybe knock out the easy ones first. Maybe 1 at a time? Plan it, aim at it, crush it

        You are funny … “maybe”

        You could always find a way somehow.

        I am not a climber… I am not very coordinated lol.

        I don’t really make lists like that, cause I don’t want to be disappointed if I can’t or don’t. If I get to… then bonus!

        I’ve just been letting life take me… although I do aim lol ✌️😄😘 if I want something – I’m gonna aim at it lol – I’m pretty good with that evidentially ❤️ most of the time.

        God help me when I aim at a fast car lol 😄✌️

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