In just a matter of hours, Lorie and I will be leaving the house here in Renkum, bound for Amsterdam, and then London. One week from today, by this time, we’ll be somewhere over the Atlantic, home bound for the United States, and then Montana. I’ll try to post from London, before then, if I can.
In the meantime, here’s a check-in from the 101 Things in 1001 Days project I’ve been working on these past couple of years:

900 Day Check-in: 100-ish Days to Go

As I’m rounding the corner of these last 100 days of this project, it’s becoming apparent that some of these goals will not, in all probability, be accomplished. I know, I know, not the most positive way to start out a 100-day check-in, but I’m not feeling too fussed about it. Surprisingly, I’ve gotten some very big things accomplished. Case in point: I’m writing this check-in from overseas, in a house in the Netherlands. I’ve been here for over two months, and tomorrow Lorie and I will be heading to London for a few days before we return to Montana.

When I initially made the “travel internationally once again” goal some years ago, it was actually with the assumption that I would be going with my family on a cruise in Canada, fulfilling the objective. I didn’t get to Canada, as it turned out, but here I am in Europe nonetheless. It also occurred to me a few days ago that I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to Europe three times in my life so far, but Canada only once, despite living my entire life in a state that shares one of its borders with the country. It seems pretty weird now that I think about it, so maybe I’ll have to make more impulsive trips into Canada in the future

So, by my current reckoning, I’ve completed 52 of 101 tasks, with 49 remaining. I’ve crossed the half-way point now, and already have substantially more goals completed than my first effort from 2006-2009, so that’s certainly something to be pleased about. Reviewing my current list, I see several that I’m making progress on, and several that I should be able to complete in the next 100 days if I set my mind to it. I also see several that aren’t really well defined, and could probably be “closed” at any time. “Take as many portraits of my relatives as I can” is one such goal– I’ve been working at it, but the amorphous “as many as I can” means that I should perhaps keep at it until the closing bell this coming March.

The window for a few of these has passed, too. I don’t expect to have the weather conditions or resources to hike the 900 miles of the Montana portion of the continental divide this winter, nor attend and document a Threshing Bee in Huntley, MT, an event which happens annually in August.

I’m not getting too discouraged, though. I knew I was being a little optimistic when I made many of these goals back in 2009, and some of them are really more reflections of how I was envisioning the person I wanted to be in three years, and I think I’ve made pretty good progress. I think everyone who makes one of these lists eventually hits a “revision” phase. Something truly ambitious, like “read 101 new books” might have to get dialed back to a more attainable “read thirty new books” depending on one’s rate of reading. Conversely, “too easy” goals might get upgraded– maybe you’ve decided you’d rather watch 100 classic movies, instead of just twenty or so. I’m not an exception to this myself, although this list is surprisingly intact from the day I first posted it.

There’s things I’d change, of course, but I think I’ll leave them in place on the list, even if I don’t get around to them. Will they get bumped to the next list? Maybe. Others I feel like might not be very relevant to me anymore, like getting an OS X Server certification, which was more of a professional goal than a personal one, so they probably won’t be carried over to List Version 3. So, time to go get started on finishing off those last 49 goals!