There's no place like dome

One of the most famous family stories from my childhood involves the time when - aged 10 or 11 - I took a large stack of notebook paper and wrote on the first page, "To Walk with Jackals: Part One of an Epic Trilogy." I probably don't need to tell you that no more of the book ever got written. At age 12, I kept a scrapbook on our trip to the UK; at one point, I made a cover page for a mystery story of some sort, and even got onto the first real page - at which point the story literally terminates in the middle of the first sentence, never to continue.

This is something of a roundabout way of noting that the ideas I have to do things don't always match up with my capacity or desire to see them through. So maybe what follows is going to end up being completely irrelevant; certainly "My Year of Bonds" is dragging along like crazy, although I'm sure I'll manage to finish it eventually, if not within a single year. But I'm going to write about it anyway.

In addition to being something that may not ever get completed, The Capitol Dome Project is something that may well only be interesting to me. Alma, predictably, was not overly enthused, though she did humor me on the inaugural entry. Drew could only offer that it was not the dorkiest idea I've ever had. Alma's sister and brother-in-law suggested it could be interesting, although they were probably just being polite. My mom seemed to find it interesting, but then it's a lot of her dorkyribonucleic acid that I've got running around my body in the first place.

The Capitol Dome Project is, I guess, pretty self-explanatory. Basically, the goal is to visit all 50 US state capitals. And, in particular, the goal is to get a picture of myself standing in front of the capitol buildings, with the domes (or whatever, since there might be a handful that don't have domes per se) visible next to/behind me.

It's a project that could well take a very long time. Even if I averaged five a year - one every 2.5 months, which really sounds like a lot, especially once the few fairly close ones are finished - that's a decade. Ten years from now I'll be 37, and while I'll still be me and therefore surely not above completing a ridiculous project like this, who knows what might happen between now and then, really.

The "good news" is that by my calculation, 19 of the 49 remaining capitals are within six hours' drive - i.e. a weekend trip at worst - of a place I might have other reason to be for something more than just "vacation" (Chicago, DC, Boston). A further 18 are within four hours' drive of a major city that might be interesting enough on its own to justify a trip. The final 12 will probably require a special trip, and as such will probably include the last few to get done. (Naturally, only two of these are east of the Mississippi.)

I guess we'll see what we see, but since I already wanted to visit all the states in the union at some point, I certainly would like to be able to complete this project. The first entry - a tad repetitive if you've been keeping tabs on my Facebook photo albums - is here. Next update to come who knows when.