“He’s like the hard-working, grateful employee we never had. Wish he would wear underwear, though.” – Bob’s Burgers
I don’t need coffee to wake up, I wake up to drink coffee.
It’s Friday. Time for a happy post. We’ll need one, because (brace yourselves) I think Monday’s post is going to be grimmer than a crab bake with Paris Hilton or father’s day with Woody Allen.
But we have today. And when I am feeling down, a step back to realize and think about what I’m grateful for always brightens my day like a big old gravitationally contained spherical continual thermonuclear explosion.
Here goes.
- I am thankful for you, readers near and far. I’m happy for the one-time visitors, and happy for the faithful weekly visitors to Modern Mayberry. I had written thousands of words in a journal before I ever put a single word down on a blog. This is better, and it’s because of you.
- I am thankful for the really great fried potatoes The Mrs. made last night. They were very crispy on the outside, yet buttery-smooth on the inside. A dash of ketchup to taste?
I couldn’t find the thingy that peels the potatoes so I asked Pugsley. It turns out she’d gone off to the store.
- I am thankful for the people that I have a chance to impact in meatspace. Hmm, that’s poorly worded, it makes it sound like I’m as bad a driver as a blind Antifa® member late to get his estrogen shots. Let me rephrase: I’m happy to help people in real life. Times are tough, and they’re even tougher when people are tools on purpose, so if I can make someone’s life a little better? Many times all it takes is real empathy and a single word.
- I’m thankful that Pugsley forgot to take the trash out to the curb this week, so I can needle him about it (playfully) all week. Seriously, though, I’m really thankful because I haven’t had to remind him in the last six months, and he’s only missed trash day twice.
- I’m thankful that The Boy will be down from Big State University this weekend. It’s always nice to have him around.
- I’m thankful that sunny-side eggs taste so good. And I’m thankful that the crisp taste of a fresh tomato exploding as I bite into a cool slice on a hot day exists. I’m grateful for the knowledge that a tomato is a fruit, and the wisdom to not put it on fruit salad.
- I’m thankful The Mrs. We have saved each other from being very horrible spouses for other people. After being married so long we’re like good lawyers: we never ask a question we don’t already know the answer to.
I hear that insane people are driving trains in Mexico. I guess they have loco-motives.
- I’m thankful that I have had the good fortune to have had great bosses in most of my jobs. A good boss covers your back. A great boss pulls more out of you than you ever knew you had. One boss made the mistake of telling me to have a good day, because then I went home.
- I’m thankful for being granted the maturity to (mostly) know when I was wrong, and to look at those times not as a personal attack, but as a hint on ways to get better.
- I’m thankful for books. One of those great bosses that I had said, “Books are the only real way that you can talk to the greatest minds in history.” He and I got along very well.
- I’m thankful for the troubles I’ve had in life. Most of those troubles were like the chisel of a sculptor – they knocked off bits of me that I didn’t need, and left me better after the trouble passed. As dead Danish dude Søren Kierkegaard said, “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” After I learned this lesson, every time in life I encountered difficulty, I asked myself: “What am I supposed to learn from this?” Life got way better after I realized that what started out as a difficulty could be the greatest gift ever.
The French donated the Statue of Liberty to the United States because they had no use for a statue with only one hand up.
- I am thankful for fuzzy slippers in winter, electric fans in summer, and good cigars all year round. Protip: if you look up “how to light a cigar” on the Internet, you will get 80 million matches.
- I am thankful for the innocence I had. I am thankful for the experiences that removed it.
- I am thankful for the valor of strong men who have defined bravery and given us heroes and heroic stories to the ages. I am stronger because of Leonidas. I am stronger because of Seneca. I am stronger because of a certain carpenter who lived and died and rose again some 2,000 years ago.
- I am thankful for history, and the ability to gather vast amounts of scholarship to understand the past in ways that would have been impossible for all but the most dedicated scholars until recently. What do the “good parts” of American history and common sense have in common? They’re both being wiped from existence.
- I am thankful for PEZ®, because now I can honestly say that I’m the man who developed the PEZ®/Anti-PEZ™ space drive (PEZ Spaceship Secrets).
- I am thankful that the heat of summer has given way to the cool nights of autumn. I won’t miss summer.
- I am thankful for the way a perfect ride on a motorcycle feels as the gears shift smoothly upward under full acceleration, which, for a moment, is like riding the wind.
- I am thankful for a hot cup of coffee on a cool fall morning, on the deck, with a book, a breeze, and nothing else in the world to do.
Pugsley called me, “Severely ignorant.” I said, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
- I am thankful for the things I don’t know.
- I am thankful for one of our cats, not so much for the rest of them. Of course, the cat I like is the cat I wanted least.
- I am thankful for all of my children – each of them in their own way.
- I am thankful for a night of good sleep, and a morning where I have something exciting that pulls my head from the pillow. The Mrs. likes to lightly rub my back while I sleep, which is an amazing expression of gentleness. Unless you’re in prison.
- I am thankful for work.
- I am also thankful for time off.
- I am thankful for the way my shirt smells the day after a campfire. It’s not uncommon for people to die in campfires – I mean, it’s not common, either. I guess it’s medium rare.
What are you thankful for?