101 things to do before the year ends
Sometimes the year seems to be zipping by so quickly you almost want to look for a referee and call “Time out!”
But do not despair, 2014 still has plenty of ticks on the clock.
In fact, there are 101 days left.
Just think of all the things you could do before the buzzer sounds on this twelvemonth.
For instance …
1. Reread your all-time favorite novel.
2. Listen to music recommended by someone half your age.
3. Make your own cider.
4. Marvel at toddlers in snow suits.
5. Personal Piefest 2014.
6. Be the first in your circle to note that Pearl Harbor Day is on a Sunday this year.
7. Organize a no-jerks touch-football game.
8. Visit a cantankerous shut-in.
9. Adopt a pet from a local shelter.
10. Teach someone something.
11. Sign up for a class.
12. Drive over to the Little Big Horn battlefield.
13. Try a Northwest wine you have never tasted.
14. Check out the Bing Crosby house.
15. Compile a family recipes cookbook.
16. Vote, early and often.
17. Size up your backyard for ice rink potential.
18. Send flowers for no particular reason.
19. Consider forming a book club and then decide not to do it.
20. Just let it go when you hear someone pronounce it “foilage.”
21. Celebrate the fact that railroads helped make Spokane a city by taking a train ride.
22. Check out a restaurant you have never tried.
23. Drag some poor soul to 14 different holiday bazaars.
24. Say “You call THIS cold?” when a newcomer from warmer climes speaks up.
25. Caramel apples at Green Bluff.
26. Obsess about your skiing stuff.
27. Leaf watching on Mount Spokane.
28. Thank someone for really listening.
29. Try a new and improved approach to Christmas shopping.
30. Flu shot.
31. Write a letter to the editor that shows how it’s done.
32. Do your Hot Chocolate Snob routine.
33. Show a visitor from out of town what the Palouse looks like after a little snow.
34. Keep track of your workouts on an Advent calendar.
35. Stand in one of the downtown skywalks and watch people down below on a day when you can see their breath.
36. Volunteer.
37. Turn off the road at the U-Pick sign.
38. Manage to foul out of a rec league basketball game.
39. Inform your cat that it is gaining weight in its tail.
40. Go see what’s new at the MAC.
41. Build a “Calvin and Hobbes” snowman.
42. Toast someone with a glass of beer that looks like liquid asphalt.
43. Celebrate Columbus Day in a counterintuitive way.
44. Rethink your social media profile.
45. Retire some underwear that makes you appear to have been attacked while running from a cougar.
46. Trot out your fake German accent at an Oktoberfest.
47. Wait in bed for the opportunity to place your freezing toes against an innocent person’s warm underbelly.
48. Debate: What’s the best turkey dressing style?
49. Complain about or celebrate the fall-back time change.
50. Homecoming games.
51. Kiss someone who is a health care provider.
52. Carve jack-o’-lantern likenesses of your favorite Spokane TV news personalities.
53. Play the part of “Rugged Northwesterner” when waving goodbye to Snow Birds.
54. Listen to the mountain-pass reports.
55. Thermostat Wars ’14.
56. Read up on the Jewish High Holy Days.
57. Cold weather backyard grilling.
58. Tell the people in the next apartment, in a nice way, that you can hear it all.
59. Have a talk with your outdoor potted plants about which of them are about to be moved inside and which are bound for plant heaven.
60. Don’t make people snicker by saying “I guess this sweater/sweatshirt shrank over the summer.”
61. Rake up a small mountain of leaves and invite a little kid to run and jump in it.
62. Note that Veterans Day and Washington’s statehood day are both Nov. 11.
63. Organize your seasonal shoes.
64. Seek feedback from teenagers on your trademark catch-phrases.
65. Designate a day to go without your communications electronics and see what it tells you about your life.
66. Enjoy the sight of middle school kids inappropriately dressed for cold weather.
67. Consider the inevitable fate of early-purchase trick-or-treat candy.
68. Maintain your composure when a certain someone loses yet another glove.
69. Check out Grand Coulee Dam when it’s not 90 degrees out.
70. Make sure your passports are not expired.
71. Invent a festive holiday cocktail.
72. Start a new regimen.
73. Do a marathon of that TV series your co-workers raved about a year or so ago.
74. Write a poem about wood smoke and give it to someone.
75. Walk somewhere you have never walked or hike somewhere you have never hiked.
76. Go back and spend more money at a small business where you were treated well.
77. Take a football to a park and punt.
78. Don’t take the bait when your reactionary uncle tries to get under your skin at Thanksgiving.
79. Write someone an actual letter.
80. Eat an alarming amount of lentils.
81. Try to reason with basement spiders.
82. Rediscover how much fun it is to ride a bike (or remind yourself why you gave it up years ago).
83. De-clutter your dwelling with a maniacal zeal.
84. Read a biography that you have been meaning to get to for 20 years.
85. Practice your secret Marmot Lodge handshake.
86. Ask your doctor if it is wise to put on a layer of fat before denning up.
87. Find someone to dance with in your kitchen.
88. Impose order on that one closet shelf that has been described as Hatsapalooza.
89. Go see a band with a name like Rutting Season.
90. Cross state lines with intent to attend a party.
91. Grow a beard, shave off a beard or try an altogether different hair style.
92. Prepare your will.
93. Try out for a play.
94. Get some therapy.
95. Sled.
96. Keep a birdwatching log.
97. Encourage a child to keep practicing his or her musical instrument, no matter how it sounds.
98. Go a-wassailing.
99. Apres snowboard.
100. A Very Special Marijuana Christmas.
101. Draw up your Inland Northwest New Year’s resolutions.
OK, what’s on your list? Send yours (it doesn’t have to be 101 items) to pault@spokesman.com and we’ll share it on www.spokesman.com.