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Gratitudes 2018, Day 18

  1. Weekends. It’s such a great feeling to get up, get dressed, take the dogs out, then when I get to the point when I’d pack up my stuff for work, I can shrug, say “Meh…”, then go lay down on the bed and watch videos on YouTube for a couple hours.

  2. Clean dishes. Shhhhh… don’t tell Teresa or she might start raising her expectations. Wait… she’s going to read this… Hi, honey! I love you!

  3. Bird feeders. We’ve got nine hanging on posts that we’ve attached to the railing of our patio, so while eating at the dinner table, we can look outside and see a whole bunch of birds joining us for our evening meal. (Sadly, it feels like one of them is almost like a sacrificial lamb, but squirrels seem willing to eat out of just the one as long as we keep it filled.)

  4. Birds. They’re pretty, they’re great singers, they’re fun to watch and they make excellent dinner guests.

  5. Sandals. Easy to put on and take off for walking dogs, they let my feet breathe in warm, sweaty weather and they’re pretty stylish, too. Sure, they leave weird tan lines on my feet, but it’s worth it.

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Gratitudes 2018, Day 17

I know, I know… Day 18 of the process, Day 17 of gratitudes… I hope you won’t lose any sleep over it. I sure didn’t.

  1. A good night’s sleep. Sometimes you can get away with just a few hours; sometimes it’s more important than gratitudes.

  2. Engagement photos. Teresa and I finally have a whole bunch of good pictures together. We went out to a park this morning with the dogs, my parents, the photographer and his daughter and now we’ve got plenty to choose from for Christmas cards. Or at least to put on the mantel above the fireplace.

  3. Joe Conely, the aforementioned photographer. He could have just plopped us down on a bench and started snapping away, but that’s not how he works. He was extremely diligent, telling us to make subtle changes in the way we were sitting, the way our heads were turned and also making odd noises to get the dogs’ attention when they were in the shot. He’s also going to spend some time on his computer to make the good pictures… gooder? (Thanks to Joe’s daughter, Lilly, as well—she wasn’t holding the camera, but she was also providing input during the shoot to make the good pictures… gooderer?)

  4. Centennial Park, the aforementioned park. That place has so many different places for taking pictures. You can stroll down the boardwalk, lean against railings overlooking the water, sit on Adirondack chairs… there are rock walls and bridges and trees, oh my!

  5. My parents, the aforementioned parents. Teresa and I asked them to join us this morning so they could take care of the pups when just the two of us were in front of the camera. Mom, Dad and Lilly did a great job puppy-sitting on and off while we wandered through the park, looking for the right places to take pictures (next to rock walls and bridges and trees, oh my!).

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Gratitudes 2018, Day 16

  1. Saved drafts. I’ve been writing these blog entries using the WordPress app, then copying and pasting them into Facebook status updates. What I didn’t realize last night is that I was a little too intent on copying and pasting. I opened the app to start writing this entry tonight, but then it said, “Hey, what you want I should do with these unsaved changes?” One quick check online later and I realized I forgot to hit “Publish” after I finished writing it. So two entries for the price of one on my blog!

  2. The last minute. For as long as there have been assigned tasks, there have been deadlines. For as long as there have been deadlines, there have been last minutes before them. For as long as there have been last minutes, there have been students crying silently at midnight because their 20-page term papers were due by 11:59 p.m. (And also people like me trying to finish their gratitudes one finger tap at a time…)

  3. Showers. Technically, I think I was grateful for this once before, but in that case, it was for the sake of rinsing off sweat. This time, I was rinsing off hair. Lots and lots and lots of tiny little hairs that seemed desperate to hang on to my head after they’d been set free by a pair of scissors.

  4. Haircuts. Because what better way to set your hair free? Sure, I suppose you could shave it off… get it caught up in some farm equipment… extreme case of radiation poisoning… you know what? I’m cool with just a haircut.

  5. Hair “product”. Expensive gunk that you can put it in your hair to make it stay in place. (Insert Something About Mary joke here.)

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Gratitudes 2018, Day 15

  1. Poop bags. They may not be the most environmentally sound invention in the world, but compare that to piles of dog poop strewn around on lawns and driveways and sidewalks throughout the neighborhood because people refuse to pick it up with their bare hands.

  2. Dog leashes. A great way to keep your dog close by whether you’re walking the dog or the dog is walking you.

  3. Doggie treats. They can be a yummy dessert, a reward for doing tricks and a way to keep your dog from getting sick if she has to wait 14 hours between meals.

  4. Freshpet dog food. When we first got Sophie, she didn’t want to eat dry dog food. We initially got her to eat it by mixing it up with peanut butter. This type of food is healthier, so take a small scoop of it, stir it together with dry dog food and watch her bury her face in her dog bowl to scarf it up.

  5. Peanut butter. It can make dry dog food more palatable and probably tastes way better than a Freshpet and jelly sandwich.

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Gratitudes 2018, Day 14

  1. Bananas. An excellent source of potassium to prevent my leg muscles from twitching randomly at night.

  2. Stretching. A good method of reducing muscle tension to prevent my leg muscles from twitching randomly at night.

  3. Foam rolling. A great way to press muscle knots and spasms out of my quads to prevent my leg muscles from twitching randomly at night.

  4. Not kicking people in bed. Because that could happen if my leg muscles were really tense and full of knots and twitching randomly at night. Ummm… I’m being grateful for a friend, of course. My legs would never do something like that. And as long as Teresa keeps wearing long pants, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

  5. Sleeping. I didn’t wake up when it happened… when it allegedly happened… and that’s what’s known as plausible deniability. Sweet dreams, everyone!

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Gratitudes 2018, Day 13

I want to start this with a “Thank you” instead of gratitude right away. Teresa was wondering why she couldn’t see any gratitudes prior to Day 8 on Facebook. I scrolled through my profile and look, there they are! Then I saw her scroll through my profile and look, there they aren’t! … Wait, what?

I looked closer at my profile page and realized that Facebook was automatically setting the privacy level to “Only You.” I wrote about my near-hit car accident back in June and that showed up just fine. Everything since then… at least the posts were keeping me entertained.

So “Thank you” to Teresa for pointing that out. Everything is fixed and links to all of my gratitudes from the first seven days are available for my Facebook friends to see along with a few prior blog posts. If you haven’t seen them yet (and most people probably haven’t), feel free to go take a look.

And now for the main event!

  1. Washers and dryers. They’re both part of the same clothes-cleaning process, so I stuck ’em together. And I’m grateful for them because I like clean clothes.

  2. Clothes. This was actually inspired by my folding clothes over the weekend. It’s a tedious chore—I wouldn’t mind just shoving everything into drawers if it weren’t for wrinkles—but imagine what life would be like without them. It’d get really cold during the winter, most of the shops at the mall would close and all of those naked cashiers would lose their jobs, playing active sports would become really uncomfortable with various body parts bouncing around a lot more… and what would we do about all of the gas stations and restaurants with “No shirt, no shoes, no service” signs on the door? Nope, definitely better to have clothes.

  3. Nutrition bars. When I don’t have time to sit down for a full meal (or if I’m eating two or three of them in place of a meal), I’m getting a bunch of protein and vitamins and minerals and nutrients and God knows what else they put in those bars that I voluntarily consume and absorb into my body… and some of them taste really good, too.

  4. Stoplights. Because I enjoy driving through intersections without worrying about being involved in near-hits or near-misses. (CRASH!!! “Look, they nearly missed…”)

  5. My phone charger. I’m grateful that I can plug in my phone to recharge the battery so it doesn’t drain all the way out and suddenly I’m stuck with an $800 paperweight.