25 Things

This has made the rounds, so I suppose it's my turn.

It's 25 Things, in no particular order, about me you may or may not have known.
I could easily do another 25, too... I didn't know which to include and which to leave out.

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1. In all the world, there are four things that I love above everything else: language, fish, birds and trees.

With the first two, I'm pretty good.

Of the remainder, I know almost nothing.

It's not for lack of wanting or trying.

2. I wouldn't call myself a health and fitness nut, but just about everyone who knows me says I am.

3. My major goal in life is to learn as much as I can about as much as I can.

If it were in my power, I would die the smartest man in the world.

I'd still be dead, of course, but that's okay.

4. Many people obsess about the beginning of things: their ancestry, where they came from, the beginning of everything ("creation" "big bang" whatever) whereas I tend to focus on the endings of things.

My only fear of dying, in fact, is knowing that I'll never get to see how it all ends.

I want to know the ending.

5. I'm a man who values utility and functionality over style and aesthetics.

If it's pretty but doesn't have utility, I'm probably not interested in it.

That might be the reason why I've never cared about "showy" things, like drag queens or flashy cars or flowers or trendy fashions.

Instead, I wear blue jeans and drive a truck and grow edible plants in my garden.

6. I still haven't decided what I want to be when I grow up.

7. I have always been fascinated by science and of things so infinitesimally small and infinitely large that they boggle the mind. I have always loved science and the fact that everything can be explained, if only we had the knowledge and means to explain it.

8. I don't fall in love easily.

It's one thing I find extremely difficult to do, but once I'm there I never lose it.

I just do not fall out of love.

9. I have always looked older than my chronological age.

I started shaving four or five years before other boys in my class and I hated it.

I could buy alcohol and never get carded, even in Middle School.

Now, of course, looking older isn't such a good thing.

10. I am a late bloomer.

It took years for me to accept the fact that I was never going to marry or have kids, it took even longer for me to realize that the 'religion' just wasn't working for me.

11. I tell people I hate to cook, but in fact I'm very much like my dad.

I do almost all the cooking at home and at work and don't mind it at all.

12. I once said that I'd consider my life a success if I died without

A) ever having broken a bone and

B) never had to go to court to sue anyone or having had anyone file suit against me.

By that standard, I'm a total failure because I've broken five bones and been sued twice, so far.

13. My dream house would be a log cabin that's completely self-sustaining.

One of the first books I ever bought was "The Self-Sufficient House."

I still have it and even though in some ways it's technologically ancient, most of the concepts are still very applicable today.

14. I started drinking alcohol -- beer, specifically -- when I was 14.

15. I love all genres of music that have rhythm (a beat) and a recognizable melody.

I like everything from opera to country to jazz to folk to roots music, but I don't like all songs in every genre.

16. I love music but I hardly ever listen to music on the radio.

I listed to talk and news programs instead.

I can learn something from the news.

I can't listening to music.

17. Even as a kid, I loved doing 'chores' like raking leaves, shoveling snow and mowing grass. I've always loved working with my hands.

Still do.

18. In high school was very, very good at algebra, geometry, trigonometry and calculus.

Got straight A's.

Now I can hardly balance my checkbook without a reference guide.

19. My political philosophy has changed very little from the 60's and yet, then, I was considered a conservative by most of my peers and now I'm considered a raving liberal.... that's how much the political landscape has shifted under my feet.

20. I love motion, of seeing the terrain whiz past me.

I suspect that's why I love skiing, long road trips and long hiking and biking excursions, flying in a small plane and, of course, why I became a long-distance runner.

21. I come from a fairly large family.

I have three sisters and I'm the #3 son of the five boys.

Of them all, I look the most like my dad.

22. I still wear the same size shirts and pants I wore in high school.

23. Unlike the above, I now wear much larger size shoes.

In high school, I wore size 9 1/2.

In college, 10.

In the Air Force 10 1/2.

I now wear size 11 or sometimes 12.I had heard that your feet grow slightly all your life but I never believed it until I experienced it.

24. I'm surprised I'm still alive.

I had a rather vivid and recurring dream as a child that I died when I was 54. Since kids can't even imagine being 30, this was a shocker to most people I told about it. I was sure, therefore, that I would be dead before I turned 55, so I consider each year beyond that as a bonus. I never expected to make it this far.

25. I never drank coffee before I went to college.

Now I can't live without it.

Did I have a life before coffee?

I can't remember.

Apparently, I hadn't had enough coffee yet.

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