But Life is Pretty Good, After All...

OK. Lousy contractor, bladder surgery, etc. Economy in the shitter. But hey, where's the actual pain? As of this writing, I'm employed, my wife is well employed, we have health insurance and some retirement benefits, and vacation and sick leave. Our retirement funds have lost much of their value, but they have some years ahead in which to recover somewhat. Even our discretionary investment isn't quite gone yet. The car is OK. The house...well, that's another entry, coming soon.

And, as I start toting it up, life has brought much joy and much of interest. What follows is kind of a life list, in part to remind me and in part to say, hey, cool!

I have heard President Kennedy speak, at the Air Force Academy graduation of my cousin. I've shaken hands with Jimmy Carter and Al Gore. I've heard, live, presentations by Gore, Carter and Norman Schwartzkopf. I was patted on the head by WI Governor Warren Knowles at a Packers preseason game.

Oh, yeah, I was at the Ice Bowl. December 31, 1967. 13 below at kickoff. Packers defeated Cowboys to go on to the second Super Bowl.

Musically I've done fairly well. I have heard concerts by Louis Armstrong and Ray Charles. I've been at performances by Jimmy Buffett, Willie Nelson and Peter, Paul and Mary, The Association, Tom Rush, The Mothers of Invention (three times, twice in Appleton, WI), Peter Nero, The Manhattan Boys' Choir, and several others. And I played string bass behind Doc Severinson. I've seen two performances by Mickey Hart (he was one of the drummers for the Grateful Dead) and his world percussion tours; the concert finales left their venues and closed (1) the Las Vegas Strip (all right, one lane) and (2) part of Times Square.

I've seen live comedy from George Carlin, David Brenner, George Kirby, and David Steinberg. I've met authors Paul Harvey, Isabel Allende, Jeremy Rifkin, John Ciardi and a very drunk Hunter S. Thompson. And Neil Gaiman, who's on a bit of a roll lately.

My great-uncle Chester Colgrove was written up in the Saturday Evening Post in 1949, just before he lost all the oil money. If you go back eleven generations in the Porter family, you'll find folks who fought the injustice of the Salem witch trials. My daughter is the fifth generation of my relatives to attend the University of Minnesota.

I've been to some wonderful places: Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis. My house. Washington, D.C., several times and I want to go again. Cincinnati, with Mount Adams. San Antonio, especially the Riverwalk. Boston, New York. The rockbound coast of Maine. The North Shore of Lake Superior, which some say looks more like the rockbound coast of Maine than the rockbound coast of Maine. Toronto. Montreal. The moonscape of Sudbury (seriously, astronauts trained on the nickel mine tailings). Amethyst mining in Ontario. The POW camp.

The Grand Canyon. Arizona also has Mingus Mountain, Arcosanti, the Sonoran Desert Museum,, the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest, Sedona and the Red Rocks region, Oak Creek Canyon, and some stuff by the Colorado River. Not to say Phoenix, Tempe, Monte's Steakhouse, etc., etc.

Las Vegas. Los Angeles. San Diego. Tijuana. Laguna Beach. Capitola. San Francisco. Alcatraz. The redwoods. Yosemite. Highway 101 in Oregon. California 1, for much of its length at one time or another.

Mount Rainier and Olympic national Parks in Washington, both about two hours from our apartment in Tacoma. Seattle, and Pike Place Market. The Roy Rodeo, local but great fun.
Tom and Roseanne's Big Food Diner in Eldon, Iowa. Hot Springs, Arkansas. Nauvoo, Illinois.
The Mormon Tabernacle. Lake Coeur d'Alene in Idaho, in perhaps the finest view location anywhere. Yellowstone, the Black Hills, the Badlands, Wall Drug.

And some of the places on the way: Columbus, Indiana, with its architecture; Hannibal, MO; Blanchard Caverns in Arkansas; Branson; Portsmouth, NH; Baltimore; a good deal of Florida; Mammoth Cave; and the homes and chosen restaurants of friends and relations in many great places.

England and Scotland. Paris. Germany, Austria, Switzerland. Turkey. The Dominican Republic.
Just listing these places wakes many memories - and hey, thank goodness for that - and may lead to some storytelling in future entries.

I've been to the top of the Eiffel Tower, the Space Needle, the Empire State Building. the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Building in Chicago. I've set foot in the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Caribbean, the mediterranean, and the Aegean, and Lakes Michigan and Superior. I walked across the headwaters of the Mississippi at Lake Itasca. I visited Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame.

What's most exciting about all of this is that there's so much more to do.