100 Things Worth Doing: 51-75

More scenes I hope to see as my life flashes before my eyes, numbers 51-75: 51. Hearing the Critter sing along from the back seat. 52. KOA in October. 53. Dancing in a kilt 54. Buying fresh swordfish in the market in Sicily through grunts and hand gestures. 55. Asking my future father-in-law for his daughter's hand after watched the new James Bond movie 56. Figuring out that fingerling potatoes taste just like regular potatoes. 57. Dancing to Ray Charles with the Critter. 58. Camping in the redwoods with Giuia. 59. Climbing in the hayloft at the barn. 60. Drinking Guinness at the brewery 61. Holding my bride's hand when she woke up from surgery. 62. Standing in line to see Minnie Mouse. 63. Catching lightning bugs. 64. Making Squirmy laugh for the first time. 65. Winter road trip to Canada 66. The sound of crickets on a hot summer's day in Blue Ridge, Georgia 67. Playing rummy with the aunts & uncles at Christmas time 68. The early morning splash of cold seawater at kayaking class 69. Making clay spaceships with my brother 70. Dogsledding in Alaska 71. Eating with my Father, the doctor, at Arby's in one of Atlanta's worst neighborhoods after his hospital rounds 72. Squeezing over a hundred people into our house for a Christmas party 73. Doing the money game with >35 kids under the age of 6 74. Finding the ancestral home at Cashel, Ireland 75. Winning first place in the 2'6" jumper competition on that pain-in-the-ass shetland pony. For more, go here or here. Or see the inspiration.
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On the other hand, I do have more sympathy for every pet I've owned now

As mentioned, my Bride and I have been pursuing medical intervention to ensure we don't propogate the species any further. Between the Critter and Squrimy, we've replaced ourselves in the gene pool, and we figure we can be done and feel good about it. Though it took several months of effort, I finally had managed to get on the schedule for the clinic, where a doctor was due to get intimate enough with my intimates to perform the operation. I don't know how odd it is, but the night before, my Bride asked me if I was having any second thoughts about the operation or the lasting effects, and gave me the opportunity to opt out if I was. It was awfully sweet of her, but having been woken up on a Saturday morning at 5:30 am by Squirmy, because he thought it was time that someone came and played with him for a while, I was pretty set on going through with it. Here in the UK, our local NHS hospital schedules these things in groups, on a Sunday once a month or so. Ever been to your local suburban hospital on a Sunday morning? We did a double take in the parking lot, because there were so few cars there. The halls of the hospital were empty, with only the sound of a radio playing in somebody's distant office telling us there was anyone around. It was very 28 Days Later.
We followed the sound of music (which was playing, I kid you not: Me and Mrs. Jones) and found a sign, propped up in the hallway, and a bunch of men kind of hunched over in their chairs, staring at their shoes. About two out of three men had a woman with them, presumably their wife or partner. Unfailingly, the woman was smiling and laughing. One guy had two women with him, about the same age. Which made me wonder if he had a particularly supportive sister, or what, exactly?
About a half an hour later, I met the smiling doctor (male) and a bevy of nurses (female), who came in one after the other to tell me to disrobe, or to check if I was ok once I was disrobed, and if I had the right underwear to put on after I was done being disrobed, and to tell me I had a beautiful baby while I was lying there, disrobed (which seemed a little ironic, given where I was). After the third visit from one of these nurses while I was lying on the hosptital bed in my socks and my t-shirt, reading a Star Wars novel in an attempt to distract myself (what a dead sexy mental picture I paint, eh?), the doctor came in and punched me in the crotch. "HolysweetmotherofGod" "Did that hurt?" "Um. A bit." "Ok, well, at least we've established your sensitivity level. [read: pansy-boy]I'll use more anesthetic before I do the other side." Ah. Fun. The other side. If it hadn't been for the four months of wait to get this appointment, I would have considered saying let's stop here, and I'll come back another time to finish the other half of the job. To his credit, it did feel like he put a couple of paper towels around his knuckles before he punched me in the crotch again. But then the nurses let me put my clothes back on, and gave me a cup of tea. Which is the British version of pity. An hour later, I was on my couch at home, with all the tylenol I wanted and a bag of frozen corn to soothe my pride. But on the way out of the clinic, I took this picture of an "out of order" sign on one of the emergency kits in the wall:
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100 Things Worth Doing: 26-50

More things I hope flash before my eyes. For more, go here. Or see the original 26) Winning 3rd place in the open waltz competition. 27) Seeing my article published in a trade magazine for the first time. 28) Chasing crawdads in the creek. 29) Getting lost on the way to the Etowah Indian mounds with my grandmother and her friend when I was six 30) Camping in the Florida Keys because we were too poor to afford a hotel room. 31) Eating sushi at a restaurant called the Pink Godzilla. 32) Playing Nintendo and eating pastrami sandwiches until 4 a.m. 33) Exploding balloons while trying to make chocolate cups. 34) Riding my bike to school. 35) Spending $20 in the arcade. 36)Skinny dipping in the hot tub in Santa Cruz 37) Graduating from boot camp. 38) Learning to operate a table saw from my step-father. 39) Helping my father, the doctor, operate on a pig in the back yard 40) Climbing inside one of the pyramids at Giza. 41) Taking a bulldozer for a joyride at 1 a.m. with Ryan and Darren. 42) That bed and breakfast run by two old gay guys in Charleston, South Carolina. 43) Walking out of the interview, knowing I had landed my first real job after the Army. 44) Opening the shipping crate of my new Stelling banjo. 45) Snowmobiling across a frozen lake in Ontario. 46) Being best man at my father's fourth wedding 47) Laughing as we realized that Poulnabrone is only 4 feet high 48) Standing in the coliseum. 49) The smell of dogs and old books in my grandmother's house. 50) The anticipation and excitement that came along with Woodward Academy's Super Goober day.
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