My Blind Bucket List

I was diagnosed with retinitus pigmentosa in July 2021. It's a genetic condition that causes the cells in the retina to die. It's incurable and untreatable. I'm legally blind already. Total darkness is coming soon.

It's probably the best thing that ever happened to me.

When I told the kids I was legally blind and probably two years from being totally blind my son asked me if there was anything I wanted to do while I still could. The first thing I said was Mount Rushmore because my mom is always telling me how cool it is, but I thought about it and realized this isn't my mom's bucket list, it's mine.

And I didn't want to go to Mount Rushmore, I wanted to water ski.

So two of my kids and I each chipped in a couple grand and we bought a ski boat. I put the grandkids in charge of naming it so it's name is Fuzzy Peach. I'm convinced that's the greatest name for a boat in the whole history of history. We spent half a week on the Tennessee River water skiing, getting pulled around on a giant inner tube, and getting thrown overboard by my grandkids. It was magnificent. And it was also the beginning of my blind bucket list.

I flew back to Arizona where my daughter took me hiking through all the national parks and hiking trails I used to take her on when she was little. I skinny dipped in Navajo Lake and drank a glass of my daughter's and son-in-law's homemade wine. I painted my first (and last) oil painting. It's a dark haired girl in a pink dress walking through a forest, and nobody knows this but the girl in the painting is based on my wife. I flew kites on the beach at Galveston Island with my parents. I stepped inside the batting cages and swung at softballs I can barely see anymore (0 for 70, yay me!). I flew back to the Rockies to spend Christmas with my parents and see snow one last time. I threw a snowball. I looked up an old friend from high school and had lunch with him. We talked a bit about where we are now but mostly we laughed at the stoopid stuff we did as kids, the times we got caught and the times we got away. I visited my little brother's gravestone for the last time. Rest in peace, Bear.

I went back to Tennessee to meet my new grandson. His four year old brother drove me around on the back of their ATV. I got in a Nerf Gun war with the grandkids. They're too young to realize I wouldn't know where to aim if they'd just stop giggling.

Sure, I could have done all those things without going blind, but I didn't. That's the point. I was always too busy working to do anything else. Going blind opened my eyes - what an odd metaphor! But it did. This past year has been one of the happiest years of my life.

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