My bucket runneth over

Life is too short to drink light beer.

I reached that conclusion shortly after my 64th birthday.

It was time to come to grips with reality: there just isn’t a lot of time left and I don’t want to waste it drinking Bud Light.

Neither do I want to spend it playing Pokémon GO.

I prefer to spend what time is left fishing and hunting, raising bird dogs and vegetables, loving my wife, and falling asleep in my favorite chair.

I no longer have visions of great adventures although I hope my grandchildren do. I did the great adventure thing when I was young instead of pursuing an education or chasing a lucrative career.

I’m not one of those retired guys who wishes he hadn’t worked all the time and had gone fishing more often instead. No, given a choice I always chose fishing, or hunting over financial stability and career advancement.

I didn’t want to wait until retirement to enjoy myself. There was too good a chance I’d end up infirm or crippled by then. And while I remain upright and relatively pain free, my knees pop and crackle when I rise from my chair, and I have a hard time staying awake past sunset.

Had I waited until now to go fishing my options would have been limited. There’s no way I’d be able to hike eight miles up Slough Creek just to fish the third meadow for an afternoon. And the thought of packing out an elk from atop the Gallatin Divide would never advance beyond a thought.

I wouldn’t have spent all those the nights in a tent had I waited until now. Camping isn’t as romantic (or as comfortable) for old folks as it is for young.

I suppose instead I’d find myself behind the wheel of a motor home, trying to navigate the traffic in Yellowstone Park, eyesight failing, reflexes not what they used to be, driving too fast in an effort to check off one more item on my bucket list.

I filled my bucket years ago. Occasionally I dump it out just to see what’s inside. I’ve forgotten more now than I remember, a consequence, perhaps, of all the cheap beer I drank.

But time is fleeting and with what little is left I’m determined to take advantage of the micro-brew craze sweeping the state.

Life’s too short to drink light beer.

Parker Heinlein is at

[email protected]