A Wish List

Earlier this year I wrote my last to-don’t list. As the leaves turn and the days get shorter, here’s a list of things I hope I will get to do.

• Dive the Great Blue Hole in Belize with my wife. We both love diving, but we’ve never done it together.

• Visit Cape Scott National Park with my family. I grew up on Vancouver Island but have never been further north than Alert Bay; we were planning to go a couple of years ago but spent the week in bed with COVID instead.

• Revisit Japan, also with my family. I had a week in Kyoto back in 1993, but I spent most of it in a basement, and I’ve always regretted that.

• Spend a year or two programming with and for young scientists. It would be nice if something from this turned into an open source package that other people picked up, but that would be a bonus; what I want most is just to feel useful.

• Publish some books for young readers. I’ve been working on several for years; I’ll be disappointed if I’m remaindered before any of them are on the shelf.

• Play Semisonic’s Closing Time on stage in a band, mostly for the practice sessions beforehand—I miss jamming with friends.

• Eat a meal at a fancy restaurant that was prepared by my daughter.

• Celebrate my fortieth wedding anniversary. I’d like to see my fiftieth, but I’m trying to be realistic…

• Bring my wife tea in the morning every day until that anniversary and for many years afterward. (I’d like to bring tea to my daughter every day as well, but I expect she’ll want to move out at some point.)

• Leave this world believing that it’s going to be OK.