Random thoughts

What a week. We got home from volleyball perfectly fine on Friday, and on Saturday Bob woke up with chest congestion. We quickly evacuated the Mamá to my sister's house. From what I could see of his "affliction," it could have done her in, her lungs being her weak point. Sunday we visited MedExpress, by s request. That kind of scared me. "The flu," they declared. So we are treating symptoms with prednisone and Mucinex and hoping for the best. I have been trying to keep my distance and following him around with Clorox wipes. I have been taking echinacea and vitamin C and we wait nervously for it to pass and hope that neither she nor I end up catching it.

We have watched an amazing number of movies, and fortunately for me Sunday was highlighted by an NCIS marathon on USA. So that brings me to thoughts of NCIS. We were oblivious to the show for the first two seasons and discovered it while crossing the country on our bike. It turns out that wherever you are in the country and whatever day or time it is, when you check into a motel in any town and turn on the tv, there it is. So we got hooked. I spend what is probably a ridiculous amount of time thinking about the show and its characters, but lately I see posts on Facebook about shows like Breaking Bad, 

Downton Abbey, Scandal and the like, so I realize I am nit alone. It fascinates me that we can get so wrapped up in the characters  and plots. So I thought about what appeals to me about this particular show, besides that it reminds me of the epic bike trips.

It is the most watched show on tv and has been for several years. One theory I have is that everyone really wants their job to be just like this. They do meaningful work, use technology in innovative ways, get to handcuff people and they all like each other. What wouldn't you do to make your job that fun? And to top it off, there is David McCallum still looking amazingly good. Gibbs has an appreciation for substantive women and doesn't suffer fools lightly. They are a family whose members pool their talents and abilities for the greater good. The characters play off each other perfectly. 

See? Way too much thought. Tonight, after watching a movie about the race down the Great Divide on mountain bikes, we viewed an episode we had DVR'd from yesterday. It dealt mainly with the education of girls in Afghanistan, a year before Malala, and was fascinating for its depth. It also had Tony contemplating mortality and making his bucket list. So it got me to thinking.

What would be on mine? Knitting, for one. I learned to knit a long time ago, made one sweater and just never got around to doing it again, interrupted by a 17-year needlepoint project. (Yes, you read that right.) But I would like to do it again. Seeing Cuba, before it is overrun with McDonalds. Cycling in India. 

But the really odd thing about bucket lists at 57 is that you realize that there are some things that you will never get to cross off. I will never be a professional dancer or get to work with dolphins. I will probably never be really, truly fluent in Spanish, simply because the way my life worked out made that difficult. I most likely will not ride in Paris-Brest-Paris.

Some of these things are okay. Some not so much. But they are. And the trade offs have, on balance, been worth it. And on the whole, I think Gibbs and I would get along.