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More aging red flags come with packing for trips and completing Bucket List

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For What's It Worth
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By
Rick Peterson, general manager

In past columns I have shared with you the little life changes I have experienced that may indicate that the aging process in my case keeps advancing. Here are two sure, but not so subtle, hints I reluctantly took notice of recently.
Making a list of things to pack for any sort of trip —be it an overnighter or more importantly anything over two days — is a must. You would probably agree such a list is more commonplace and really not a sign of aging, but when the first two items on the packing list are your meds and the heating pad, it makes you wonder.
The second such aging red flag that started waving at me is how I now thread my belt through the belt loops before I put my pants on. We all might put our pants on one leg at a time, but at least for me, the process of putting my belt on has been altered a bit.
Forgetting things seems to be on the rise for me as well. To explain my increasing forgetfulness away instead of blaming it on my natural aging process, I am going to go with a new catch phrase, thanks to the coronavirus, that my current state of forgetfulness is the new norm, and leave it at that.
Speaking about forgetting things, I kind of forgot about my 2020 Bucket List. I have some serious catching up to do.
I am four haircuts short of my five haircuts at five different salons in Luverne. That’s more the governor’s fault than mine. Same goes for attending 12 different church services in 12 different churches this year. And it’s been impossible to catch a movie at the Palace the last three months.
I did attend a girls’ basketball game before the governor shut down the schools, and I have waded into The Lake this summer.
I am going to have to talk to the Bucket List rules committee about waiving the drinking of a glass of clean water at the Blue Mounds State Park. I found out the State Park annual sticker I put on the windshield of my Ranger was outdated, but that little hurdle was easily rectified.
The bummer in all of this is that I also found out you can’t drive a side by side on the paved roads, or anywhere else, for that matter, in the state parks, or at least not at the Blue Mounds State Park.  
You can’t drive them to the parking lot up the hill to the interpretive center.
Keep in mind this is a completely road-worthy vehicle with blinkers, road tires, headlights, brake lights, horn and rearview mirrors and licensed by the Minnesota DNR. I am not allowed to drive it into Blue Mounds State Park. Go figure.

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