This is what happens when you clean out a closet. I came across this hand-written list from years ago. Not sure when, but most likely from my junior high school days. All the things I wanted to accomplish in my lifetime.

1. Learn to snow ski. I did. Even made my own pair of skis. I used old belts for the binding. Seriously.

2. Visit St. Albans, Vermont. I’m from St. Albans, West Virginia. Haven’t made it to Vermont. I guess there’s still time.

3. Build an underground hut. I don’t know why. Never did it. Never will.

4. Learn to pick padlocks and combination locks. Because that would be so cool. I still want to learn to do this.

5. Perform magic in front of a large audience. I learned a few card tricks in my day, but I’ll be happy to let this goal slide.

6. Master escape tricks as Houdini did. I once made my own wooden stocks to escape from, but I never became a great escape artist. I’ll let this one go, too.

7. Learn to scuba dive. I actually considered this a couple of years ago. May still do it.

8. Explore the Atlantic Ocean in a submarine. That’s a big step from scuba diving. I’m surprised I didn’t say I wanted to build my own submarine.

9. Learn to fly an airplane. The company I work for used to have an airplane. I flew in the co-pilot’s seat many times. I learned enough about flying that I was confident I could crash the plane within sight of the airport.

10. Learn to fly a glider. It’s just an airplane without an engine. Piece of cake.

11. Build a hovercraft. This is classic Joe. I figured I could do it with an old lawnmower.

12. Build a man-powered glider and/or a regular glider. What’s a man-powered glider? Yeah, I can build anything.

13. Go into space and/or visit the moon. It was the middle of the space race. Every kid wanted to go to the moon.

14. Learn to play the banjo. I can play the guitar. And I’m still thinking about the banjo.

15. Find out all possible about the Lost City of Atlantis. I know nothing more today than I did back then. Must have been a passing interest.

16. Live to the year 2000. Seemed so far into the future. Now it seems so far in the past. Time, it swallows everything. From the Amos Lee song, What’s Been Going On.

17. Get patents an at least three inventions. That’s just too much like work.

18. Write a book. Yes! I’ve written five! Six, if you count carnival dreams, my collection of stories, now available on Amazon (shameless plug).

That’s it. Guess I’ve always been a dreamer. Still am. And I think that’s a good thing.