Day 6 - The Anti-Bucket List

During a recent lunch break, I asked some of my colleagues if they had any ideas I could use for some of these May blog posts. Someone suggested I describe the things on my "Bucket List." I dismissed the idea pretty quickly -- not because I thought it was a bad idea, but as I thought about what items would be on my list, I realized that ultimately I don't have one. I couldn’t think of any big adventures or experiences or places to visit waiting to be checked off.

Are there things in life I'd still like to do someday? Yeah, sure. But as far as hopes or wishes go, I'm confident most people would consider mine to be pretty mundane. Some of these would be nice experiences to have, but if I don't have them I'm not going to feel any palpable sense of loss. Other items on my would-be list could be things I would have hoped for at one time, but as my priorities shifted and my life rolled along in the direction I'd set, circumstances made those things less likely to ever happen. I accept this easily enough, and maybe that acceptance plays a role in however that downgrade of importance originally began to happen.

But do I see any of these things as essential to do before I die? No, not really. So now that's left me wondering: Is this because I've grown used to disappointment, or because I'm just comfortable with less grandeur? Or is it a mixture of the two?

Maybe I should toy with the idea of putting together a list. I'd expect it'd be something like a birthday list, where you write down the things you hope for even if you know you probably won’t get them all. I guess my problem would be not really having any idea where to start.

Day 5 - Meteorological Liberation

Days like this remind me of how big the world is, and how specific life in Minnesota can be.

I have the news on each morning while I'm getting ready for the day, and today one of the big stories was how the DNR declared an ice out for some of the major lakes in the Cities (which is how we refer to the Twin Cities up here, for the out-of-towners). It made me think of some of my cousins living in Texas and Arizona, some for their entire lives, who probably wouldn't recognize the term "ice out" without some explanation.

At the end of the school day I was standing out front with some of my colleagues, when somebody mentioned how the sunny 65 degree day felt like it could have been in the 80s after all of the cold we've endured this winter. I didn't really agree, but that's probably because I think temperatures in the 60s are about as perfect as weather can get. And again, I thought of my faraway cousins who would probably think 65 degrees would feel like the dead of winter.

After I got home, I changed into workout clothes and drove to the Y. Not a terribly noteworthy event itself, but today was the first time I've gone there in a long, long time without needing to wear a sweatshirt or a jacket. I also wore my sunglasses on the drive over, because it was actually bright enough to make them necessary.

I think there are few things that can feel as liberating as a warm day after a long, cold winter. And I'm looking forward to soaking up a few more of them.

Day 4 - Comic Book Heroes

I was never big into comic books as a kid. I subscribed to the “Star Wars” comic for a year, but don’t remember much other than being annoyed when the stories focused on new characters instead of my movie favorites, and experiencing my first taste of inflation when the cover price shot up to thirty-five cents an issue. I still knew a lot about comics because I had older cousins and could always find comics lying around their houses and our grandmother’s. I didn’t know all the character origin stories or histories or relationships, but I wasn’t a true believer so I didn’t feel I was missing out on much.

Despite my appreciation for so many aspects of full-on nerd culture, I never got caught up in the graphic novel world as an adult. When the still often-mourned Border’s store that was LESS THAN A MILE FROM MY HOUSE closed, I picked up a compilation of the entire “Watchmen” run on clearance, and it was okay. I’m a huge fan of “The Walking Dead” now, but I have no interest in ever reading the books. Graphic novels? Just not a thing for me.

So I’ve never had much of a relationship with comic books. But comic book movies? Oh yeah. I loved the first Spider-Man movie, and thought the second one only made everything better; one of my all-time favorite movie scenes is when an unmasked Peter Parker struggles to stop a runaway train. The more recent Superman movies have had pros and cons, but I enjoyed them both. The Christian Bale Batman movies are almost their own category; while “The Avengers” is easily my favorite comic book movie, it’s hard to deny “The Dark Knight” is the best movie in the category, and great by any standard.

When Iron Man showed up and ushered in a wider cinematic Marvel universe, I ate it up. Granted, Marvel has had some misses. Daredevil? Eh. That second Ghost Rider movie? Yikes. That third X-Men movie and Spider-Man 3? Both a bit off the rails. And the solo Wolverine movies were a lot like a singer making a solo album: Too much of the time you wind up missing the rest of the band.

This weekend I saw “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.” I liked the first one, impressed by how Andrew Garfield made Peter and Spider-Man into two separate characters. And I’ve always been irritated how the studios can’t play nice and agree on a way to get Spider-Man into the larger Marvel universe. But after seeing this newest entry, that might be for the best. I know there’s irony in complaining about a comic book movie being one-dimensional, but wow. And poor Jamie Foxx got saddled with having to play the most poorly-written comic villain I can remember seeing. Nothing about it his Electro clicked for me.

Luckily there’s a promising X-Men movie coming later this month, and I’m really looking forward to it. Two sets of X-Men (X-People?) in one movie? That'll be something to see.