What is left in life?

So a few of you found out that I turned 50 this week from my parent's note in the church bulletin.  What most don't know is that I was never supposed to live this long. The doctors who dealt with some of my military injuries concurred I would never live to see 30.  So I am twenty years past my expiration date.  Technically I was supposed to have a mid life crisis when I was 15.  So turning 50 is a little unsettling for me because I honestly never thought I would make it this long.

Add the fact I turned 50 in Tanzania by myself and it was a bit empty.  I only had a couple of birthdays that were good ones (almost all are just another day with dinner out).  One was here in Tanzania when we did the safari the day of my birthday.  Another one was ...uhm maybe there was only the one.

So I am not a big birthday person.  I certainly don't celebrate all month like a significant number of people I know.  I was hoping to do a vacation trip, but between the team's schedule and having to head home because of the work/residence permit issues that got put off.  I am looking at a Christmas trip to one of my bucket list locations.

Speaking of mid life crisis and bucket lists I thought maybe I should look at things I want to do and start working on a plan.  The thing I realized is after the years in the military and the mission trips I have done most of the things I wanted to do.  There are some places I want to go back to visit as a tourist and not as a soldier.  So here is the bucket list I came up with and the crossed out items are all the things I have done so far.  151 items of which I have 37 left to accomplish.  Is it interesting I have done all the adventure items?  Is it interesting that my biggest list is travel and things I want to build?

• Travel

1. Visit Central/South America (Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Belize, Honduras)
2. Visit Africa (Tanzania, Kenya, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Botswana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Libya, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco)
3. Visit Asia (Armenia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Korea, Mongolia, China, Japan, Turkey, India, Cambodia, Malaysia, Yemen, Pakistan)
4. Visit Europe (Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Ireland, Greece, Croatia, Russia, Belarus, Great Britain, Scotland, Holland)
5. Go on a cruise
6. Visit and climb around in ancient ruins at Cozumel on a cruise land side venture
7. Visit Macchu Pichu Peru mission team
8. Walk on Bering Strait talk about cold
9. Visit Kilimanjaro did not climb but have been around the mountain
10. Visit Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe
11. Spend the night at tree top hotel in Tarangire park (you know when I get rich)
12. Visit Australia (one of two continents that I have not been too and I don’t really want to go to Antarctica)
13. Take a train trip across at least part of the USA (scenic type trip)
14. Visit at least 20 National/State (not SC) Parks (my count is 13)
15. Russia (as tourist not in military)
16. Korea (as tourist not in military)
17. Argentina (as tourist not in military)
18. Columbia (the country) (as tourist not in military)
19. Spain (as tourist not in military)
20. Prague (as tourist not in military)
21. Italy (as tourist not in military)
22. The Andes Peru mission team had a bus get stuck in traffic there
23. Visit at least half of the states (SC, NC, California, Washington, Alaska, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, New York, Florida, Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New Jersey)
24. San Francisco
25. Arlington Cemetery
26. Mt. Rainier
27. Grand Canyon
28. Live in a Foreign Country

• Things to make with my own hands

1. Design a Water Tank
2. Make something from concrete for a home guest bathroom sink
3. Design and build playground equipment
4. Build a bridge Kawai Camp in Peru (best part was they asked me to build after I arrived and out of scrap wood in a week including damming up the creek to divert the water)
5. Build a solar power system
6. Renovate a kitchen my house
7. Renovate a bathroom my house
8. Add a bathroom to a building my house
9. Build a cabinet the concrete sink need something sturdy
10. Build a piece of furniture mom’s table in the sun room
11. Build a concrete patio Parent’s house
12. Build a piece of art for outdoors bottle tree for Mom
13. Make a metal sculpture giraffe for playground
14. Butcher-block countertop
15. Dining room table
16. Outdoor seating
17. Cabinet or door knobs
18. Belt buckle/belt
19. Renovate a broken dresser into something useful
20. T-shirt quilt from all my mission team t-shirts
21. Something unique and creative from plastic bottle waste bench seat using plastic soda bottles as bricks
22. Something unique and creative from glass waste (wine bottles/beer bottles)
23. Something unique and creative from granite/marble waste
24. Upcycle something into a light fixture
25. Build my own table lamp
26. Upcycle an old window the picture frame I had in my living room at house
27. Upcycle an old door guest bedroom headboard at house
28. Make something by bending wood
29. Make something useful using a bucket (it is a bucket list right)

•  Adventure

1. Bath in a waterfall
2. Bath in a river
3. Parachute from a plane
4. Jump out of a helicopter
5. Repel down a mountain
6. Repel from a helicopter
7. Survive a life threating incident
8. Stitch an injury up on someone   does it count if I must stitch myself up
9. Hike through a swamp
10. Hike across a country
11. Wingsuit flying
12. Zipline
13. Swim with dolphins
14. Snorkel
15. Scuba dive
16. Ride in a submarine
17. Ride a horse
18. Ride a donkey
19. Ride an elephant
20. Ride a camel
21. Drive over 120 mph (not at a racetrack)
22. Jump a motorcycle over something
23. Whitewater rafting
24. Survive in the wild on my own
25. Go on safari 
26. Live in a tiny house

• Learning

1. Write and Teach a Bible Study
2. Lead a Vacation Bible School
3. Say Hello and Thank You in five different languages (so far English, Spanish, Kiswahili and Russian)
4. Get a college degree
5. Earn my Engineering license
6. Crochet an animal
7. Crochet a scarf
8. Crochet a blanket
9. Write computer code to create something
10. Pyrography
11. Sew and Quilt
12. Yoga
13. Stained glass
14. Sign language
15. Morse code
16. Read the entire bible
17. Teach a class a vocational skill 

• Interesting

1. Be a Leader that people follow
2. Lead a mission team
3. Ride a pig (you raise them you want to see if they can be ridden)
4. Milk a cow
5. Milk a goat
6. Make and sell a piece of jewelry
7. Make and sell something made of something normally considered trash
8. Have a canine family member Chrissie and Tank
9. Be in Love
10. Run a successful business
11. Attend a College Football Bowl Game
12. Attend a March Madness game
13. Throw and catch a boomerang
14. Be on a tv show Your Carolina with Barnabas
15. Whale watching
16. Go to a musical Tommy by the Who and Chicago
17. Meet a President
18. Exhibit or sell a photo print
19. Participate in a Murder Mystery Event
20. Have an article in a magazine
21. Go to a Drag show
22. Go to a Nascar Race
23. Camp out in the infield of a Nascar Race
24. See a ballet
25. Grow a beard
26. Get a professional massage
27. No Credit Card Debt
28. Kill/catch, clean, cook and eat something
29. Go to a championship sports game (College or Pro, Women’s or Men’s, Football or Basketball actual championship game (not division or region-national) (again something to do when I get rich)
30. Participate in a yarn bomb
31. Make something useful with a 3D printer
32. Publish a novel (more like finish it and put it on Kindle)
33. Be a mentor
34. Rescue someone
35. Go to the Olympics
36. Own a home
37. Pretend to be someone else for longer than a day
38. Have an article in a newspaper about me when I was a kid had one about me winning in a livestock show
39. Write a newsletter article that is published Reporter for FFA in high school published article in local paper about the fair
40. Be interviewed on TV news was interviewed for a story about mold dangers in a house
41. Be a recognized expert I have been recognized by the courts as an expert witness on moisture intrusion into a home, mold, construction defects and I was SC’s Young engineer of the year

•  Food/Drink

1. Drink actual Russian Vodka in Ice Bar
2. Eat a Snake
3. Eat an alligator/crocodile
4. Eat a monkey
5. Eat John the Baptist Head dish in Peru
6. Eat Grubs/Insects
7. Pig Roast we had them at the farm
8. Make ice cream (it was the only way to get as a kid)
9. Eat kimchee buried in a jar for over a year
10. The work in a tequila bottle