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Oui, Wii

I am told I need to have a bucket list – of list of things I want to do before I die. But, more importantly, I need to actually do these things, or what is the point? What is my list? Here is my current one, in no order of importance. 1.
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Laur and I get ready to square off in Yoga. Supplied photo.
I am told I need to have a bucket list – of list of things I want to do before I die. But, more importantly, I need to actually do these things, or what is the point?

What is my list?

Here is my current one, in no order of importance.
1. Buy a teeny tiny house that Laur and I can easily look after.
2. Buy a park model (trailer home) in Green Valley Arizona.
3. Learn yoga
4. Learn to swim
5. Become a runner (albeit a slow runner)
6. Play badminton
7. Learn to knit
8. Line dance

You'll notice that all of these involve less house and more hustle, and possible more husband – though he may balk at the knitting and yoga. And, alas, I want it to start RIGHT NOW, even though true retirement doesn’t start until the summer of 2015, when hubby retires.

I am just itching to move – I have a small three-bedroom house picked out in the outer reaches of the Rainbow District – but I know I am being ridiculous. Our current house is paid off, we have boarders to help pay the utilities and taxes, Laur and I can walk to our paying jobs from where we live, and Elaine (who is still in school) can walk to classes and back from our Loach’s Road abode.

I think I’m just terribly anxious to shed my responsibilities and live like an over-aged adolescent – doing mostly what I want, and just a few of the things I need to do. And I am wondering if there is a switch wired into us or at least some of us regarding when it’s time to do things.

I remember when Tommy took his first steps. He could have done it months before he did, but one day a little switch clicked over that said, “I’m a vertical creature,” and that was the end of it. Have I switched over to “I’m a retirement creature?”

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Or, am I simply mythologizing retirement. That in fact, once I have the option, I won’t actually take up more vigorous activities and I’ll simply take on more responsibilities, because that I know how to do. Maybe it’s not all or nothing and I need to attack my bucket list bit by bit.

OK, strike moving until Elaine graduates and we get our house repainted. Scratch the park model until we’re sure we can spend a few months of the year in Arizona.

But the Parkside Centre (older adults) beside the Y offers yoga and swimming year-round, or at least I think so. The knitting and line dancing I’ll save as special things I only do in Arizona.

What about running or badminton?

Somehow I have it in my head that I’ll take up running when we eventually move to St. Catharines. There is this marvellous walkway along the canal and since I won’t know anyone, I won’t have to feel embarrassed that I waddle slower than an overfed Welland Canal gosling.

And badminton… every family has to have a family sport. I confess we didn’t play badminton with our kids, and I’m not proud of that. But my grandfather in his 80s used to play badminton with me when I was a child, as did my mother. Our goal was simply - to keep the birdie in the air - and the only achievement that mattered to me was staying up later than the night before. (What a devious little 10-year-old I was.)

But it was lots of healthy fun that required very little skill.

My son-in-law’s family, the Glausers, are golf fans and you will notice golfing is not on my bucket list. I love the Glausers – but cannot stand golf. I don’t even play miniputt. Plus badminton is a sport I can play year-round in St. Catharines.

Know how many days of snow they had this past winter? Six! See http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/2012/03/13/region-city-save-during-punchless-winter.

Even if we bring the sleet and snow with us when we move from Sudbury to St. Kitts, apparently Nintendo Wii offers a virtual indoor version of badminton that is taking the world by storm (pardon the pun) in seniors' residences. Plus, Wii also offers a variety of other sports. Nintendo is now a regular promoter at the national AARPs conventions (American Association for Retired Persons.)

I can hardly wait to see the looks on my grandkids’ faces when their very toned Grannie Jan announces she is going into a Rehab Program for Video Gamers.

Over-aged adolescence, a good gig if you can net it.

Jan Carrie Steven is a volunteer with Cat Adoption Trust Sudbury (CATS) and the co-ordinator of Small Things: Cats & Books. For more information, go to www.smallthings.ca.

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