Didn't

Consider all I failed to do this summer:

•    I didn’t practice the Ashtanga Yoga Second Series with any regularity.

•    I never got around to writing my novel; I didn’t even write a piece for my weblog every day.

•    I didn’t clean out the scary storage area in my basement.

•    I hardly gardened; the potatoes were planted and harvested, but the tomatoes pretty much languished for lack of water.

•    I didn’t overhaul any of my bikes.

•    I only took one load of stuff to Goodwill; I still have many untouched piles of books, clothing, and odds and ends I could take.

•    I didn’t ride my bike to Portland.

•    I only did a cursory read of Thomas Nagel’s Mind and Cosmos: Why the Neo-Darwinian Materialist Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False, in spite of my desire to set up a philosophy reading group with several of my colleagues to explore it in-depth.

•    I left the roof of my bike shed untouched, even though it’s obvious that the moss is taking over.

•    I didn’t hire anyone to put solar panels on our outside studio roof.

•    I failed to really address the inevitable problem of water collecting in my home’s basement during the rainy season.

•    I didn’t go to the horse-racing track with my family.

•    I didn’t study the Yoga Sutras; hardly anyways.

•    I never made pesto.

•    I didn’t once go out to see a band play at a bar by myself.

•    I never found time to take mushrooms.

•    I failed to bring about peace in the Middle East, justice in Ferguson, Missouri, or aesthetic taste in Las Vegas, Nevada.

•    I didn’t bake dill scones.

•    I never volunteered at the local soup kitchen.

•    I didn’t swim in Lake Washington more than half a dozen times.

•    I didn’t lose those five pounds.

•    I didn’t win a Stranger Genius Award, a MacArthur, or the Nobel Peace Prize; the few times I bought lottery tickets, I had no luck either.

However, I did write this!