The other day I celebrated the fourth anniversary of my Oldman going to Eternal Peace. I put 31,003 on the Morning Chalkboard that day. 31,003 was how many days my dad lived.
I thought about 31,004 days. What if I outlive my Oldman by one day?
That would get me to May 20th of 2051. That would be about six weeks shy of my eighty-fifth birthday.
That gives me twenty-six more years of suffering through White Sox baseball and Bears football.
What are my dreams?
I’m not one of those “I’m leaving Illinois once my kids are out of college” guys. I don’t want to move to Arizona or Florida for retirement. It’s fucking hot in those places. They have deadly snakes and spiders all over the fucking place.
I don’t mind going through a blizzard every six or seven years. I don’t want to move somewhere that has one hundred and ten degree days for fifty days in a row. I also don’t need to go somewhere that has hurricanes every year.
My dream is right here in the state, the county, the city I was born in 21,281 days ago.
I do dream about traveling….
I’d like to visit France and see the Eiffel Tower. I’d like to take a train around Great Britain from the tip of England to the top of Scotland.
I’d like to take a Winnebago from Chicago and travel across the northern states to Montana. Mozy down through Utah into the southwest and drive back east through Texas and Louisiana. Turn back north towards the Appalachians and visit Civil War Memorials out east. Then point my way back home through southern Indiana and back to Sweet Home Chicago.
Do I risk driving all those miles through parts of the country I’ve never been to? I have 9,723 days to get all of this done.
Before I set off on all of these dreams, I still need to build the foundation of dream makers that call me dad.
Right now I need to quit dreaming and put my pants on. Betty the Green Blazer needs gas. I need groceries, run errands and complete chores.
I also have a shit ton of people that I need to pray for....
mommies in iowa, boobs on the ohio river, brains at 16th and Capital, neighbors on the block, jojo’s in dupage, gramma’s in westchester, uncles in indiana, jayhawks west of mannheim, cousins in hometown…
…and a text I received from a friend at 1:36am. Texting me that he was being admitted into the hospital and asking that I talk to my heaven people for him.
I have 9,723 days of astonishment, risk taking and dream making.
So let’s get it on and get some astonishing in today.
