One of these days…

Yep, one of these days…

One of these days, I’m going to clean the dust off the top of the refrigerator.

I’m short so if I can’t see the dirt, it doesn’t exist.

That means the following areas are never dirty or dusty – the top of the fridge, the artificial greenery over the cabinets in the kitchen and the tops of picture frames. But they still get dirty and I know I need to clean them.

Sigh. One of these days.

One of these days, I’m going to learn how to bake bread.

I’ve been watching “The Great British Baking Show,” and these people not only know how to bake a loaf of bread, they whip up bakery goods I can barely pronounce. In a few hours, they create cardamom buns, focaccia, korovai and challah.

I think I want to bake bread, but when I see these people break out in a sweat from kneading sticky dough, I change my mind. Still, spending $10 on ingredients to get a $2 loaf of bread does call my name from time to time.

One of these days, I’m going to actually follow a healthy eating plan. I know what that plan looks like – low-fat food, lots of green, leafy vegetables, gallons of water and lean meats.

This healthy eating plan does not include french fries, cheeseburgers, chips, chocolate or crawfish etouffee. It also doesn’t include late-night snacks, the rest of the bag of Cadbury eggs from Easter or peanut butter on a spoon.

Healthy eating won’t happen as long as I’m watching that baking show with its chocolate cakes, puddings, scones and pies.

One of these days, I’m going to get my passport renewed. During the covid lockdown, I cleaned out the firebox in my office. Inside was my passport – only two stamps in there – but I noticed it had expired.

I read what one has to do to get a passport renewed, and, as expected, it’s a complicated process requiring all kinds of documents. For instance, my original birth certificate. I’m retired – like I know where my birth certificate is located. But one of these days, I’ll get over to the courthouse and renew my passport.

Because… one of these days… I want to travel outside the United States. I find myself daydreaming about visiting Switzerland like my good friend Patsy or seeing the sights in London like my friend Devoni.

All I have to do is get my new passport and then part with the money so I can hop on a jet to places unexplored.

One of these days, I’m going to visit the museums in Houston. I’ve visited the ones around here, and they’re fabulous.

But we live next to one of the largest and most diverse cities in the United States, a place that offers irreplaceable paintings, eons-old fossils and priceless gems.

There’s a museum that’ll take me back to the prehistoric days, one that showcases the atrocities of the Holocaust and one with funky cars painted in every color under the sun.

One of these days, I’ll drive to Austin and stand in the line at Franklin Barbecue. I’ll remember to bring a lawn chair and sunscreen and see why people are gushing about the restaurant’s barbecue brisket.

I love the barbecue eateries in our area, but to say I’ve been to Franklin Barbecue would give me some bragging rights among the pit masters.

Yep, one of these days I’ll hop in my car at five in the morning and go stand in that long line. Right after I get my passport renewed and clean the dust off the top of the dresser in our bedroom.

One of these days, I’ll quit daydreaming about what I want to experience, see, visit, and get with savoring the rich adventures waiting just around the bend.

Maybe that day is today.

This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.