If you’re following me on FB or Twitter, you might have noticed a series of reposts lately, partly as I realized my numbering style for my #50by50 posts were confusing people. Too many subcategories and I would likely not reach 50 items since I was grouping some. So I’ve gone back to numbering them individually where appropriate, and reposting. But with just over two months left, I realized that some of my possible plans are likely not going to happen.

Dye my hair

I put a lot of thought into this, which was probably a mistake. Because that thought was enough to talk me out of it. If I was to dye my hair, I wouldn’t want to look like I was trying to hide grey hair or look younger. I’m fine with the white hairs in the hair on top of my head as well as on my face. I have no vanity about turning 50. Partly as it gets me one step closer to retirement, and I’m really looking forward to retirement. More on that in future posts.

So I didn’t want it to look like a pity party/vanity dye job. So no brown or black to hide my grey, no going blonde probably, and I don’t want to accelerate the grey or white. Which left either red or some bright colours — green, purple, blue?

Fortunately, there’s an app for this. You basically download one of several, most from companies selling home dye kits, take a picture of yourself, and then use the app to mark where your hair is, swapping out other colours to “test” out some dyes. Advanced Photoshop this is not. More just rough approximations to consider. I tried purple and blue and they looked as ridiculous as you might think. I couldn’t find any red that looked right — either it looked ridiculous or would look like I was trying to hide the grey and white.

What did that leave? Green. I could live with green hair. It would be different, as they say. Went through a bunch of apps, and yep, I would look ridiculous. Okay, I’m taking “dye my hair” off the list. Don’t worry — shave my head was never on there. Although I liked the people who have shaved the back of their head with the numbers 150 for Canada, and I thought — briefly! — about doing “50” for my birthday. Umm, okay no.

Time-related ones that likely won’t happen in the next eight weeks

There are a bunch that I had on my list as possibles, but with eight weeks to go, I just don’t feel like they will fit into my timelines:

• Use my passport — sure, I could do a quick trip to the U.S., but have no real desire to do so right now for anything…a weekend in Iceland? Probably not;
• Make a snow angel — I might get a chance to do that still this weekend, but I kind of hope not…it is either this weekend or it’s dead though!;
• Weekend getaway — same as with passport, likely not to happen, but it might;
• Weekend retreat — this was more a “solo” thing, and I don’t think I’m going to do that in the timeframe, more something for the late fall for me I think;
• Visit a province other than Ont / Quebec — relatively same reasons as above;
• Boat cruise, hot air balloon — not on my schedule yet, probably won’t make it there;
• Do a ride along with the police — never got around to figuring out if this was even possible, let alone with who and when;
• Going cross-country skiing — oops, missed that one;
• National park / historic site — I was planning this as a big one somewhere, maybe I’ll do a local one still, but not a priority anymore;

A big combo day for my birthday

I had been thinking of doing a big combo day for my birthday, with a bunch of activities during the day and a party/dinner /something at night. I was toying with the idea of recreating my bachelor party from ten years ago and organizing golf, indoor go-karts, shooting pool, and a nice meal, but leaving it open to be co-ed this time. Yet as I get closer and closer to the date, I feel less and less like a big celebration. I think I just want a simple day, maybe going for a hike somewhere like Bruce Pit or Gatineau Park or down to Chutes de Plaisance, with something like Lone Star for dinner or maybe some food from our favourite Thai place. Something heavily focused on time with Jacob or even just sitting on the back deck reading and relaxing. So I’m dropping:

• Indoor go-karts;
• Golfing outing (I went already in September anyway);
• Escape room
• Casino
• Birthday “party” for me

Astronomy events

I am doing pretty well on the astronomy side of things, but I had some other ideas on my initial list that I think I’ll drop for now (or rather postpone them past my birthday, so they won’t count):

• Astronomy trip — I was going to count the Radio Observatory in Algonquin Park, but they don’t recommend that in the Spring, so off my list for now;
• All-night astronomy outing — perhaps in July or August, but not before then;
• Messier marathon — as with the all-night one, probably just later in the year, other priorities in the short-term.

Stay tuned, I’ll have the full list of achieved ones updated soon, plus start filling in ones that I’ve done but not written about yet.