My Bucket List: Random Thoughts on Buckets I Have Known

Bath time with Bucket Head, 1978

As a small child, I would sometimes wear a plastic toy sand bucket on my head, often while playing in the hot sun on the beach. I mention this by way of explanation for the rest of this post.

I call the round cushioned cat bed in the living room the “cat bucket.” Even I'm not sure why.

Riverton, WY, 2006

My most unnerving bucket experience: hot air ballooning in Wyoming. To get your heart going, there's really nothing quite like floating across the wide western sky, with no real means of navigation, in a wicker bucket topped with flame. My second: the bucket of every Ferris wheel* I've ever been on.

Of the many brain buckets I've owned, the Shark EvoLine is my hands-down favorite. The slide-down tinted visor is just so very Top Gun.

Shooting pool and drinking bottles of beer from a bucket full of ice...

Seat belts in cars: Safety device

Bucket seats in cars: Birth control device

Champagne chilling in a silver bucket...

Key West, FL, 1986

If I ever own a boat, I intend to christen her “The Bucket,” so when I inevitably run her into something, I can sing the old song as she sinks. Advanced planning *is* the key to a successful boating experience.

I bear on my conscience the violent death of many buckets-full of minnows. On a related note, I can hella cook a fresh piece of halibut.**

I have eaten many “buckets” of chicken in my life, most of them out-of-doors in the Indiana sunshine. Summer vacation!

When I lived in Oklahoma, I regularly ate roasted peanuts in the shell out of a silver galvanized bucket at local steak house. When I lived in Alabama, I often ate spicy crustaceans, corn on the cob, and red potatoes out of a silver galvanized bucket while sitting on a friend's pier. I regret neither.

Today's exercise: When thinking of all of the things you've yet to accomplish from your Bucket List, don't lose sight of the myriad interesting experiences you've already had.

Next: Something “back to school” themed... Will be profound, I'm sure...

*Me + heights = :-(

**You will eat the skin... and you will thank me.