November Days of Gratitude #4

Today, I am grateful to know what the fox says.

Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-papow! is my favorite, for some unspeakable, deeply unknowable reason.

(This may be old news to you. But hey, I'm really busy today and I need . . . NEED . . . to be grateful for something. It's the November imperative.)

November Days of Gratitude #3

In my ongoing series of being super thankful during the month of November (and ONLY in November) . . . today I am glad that Lady Gaga is going into space.

(Credit:Julian Parker/UK Press via Getty Images)

 This is, I think, what the movies Apollo 13 and Gravity have been trying to tell us. Their lesson is that space is easy. It is a hospitable environment that anyone is suited for. And who among us is MORE suited for space than Lady Gaga?

I sort of feel responsible for this turn of events, because I have spent a good portion of time supporting/glorifying/celebrating celebrities . . . encouraging them to think that they can simply do whatever they want.

But maybe it's not all my fault. Maybe Felix Baumgartner's jump from the edge of space just made it seem all quite easy. (I mean, he only achieved a speed of 700 miles per hour, while recovering from some insane spins, and ended up landing on the ground and walking away like . . . hey, dude, no problem.)

Or perhaps its was Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield's personalization of life in space (not to mention his public heckling of the disaster . . . or was it just the physics? . . . depicted in Gravity) made it all seem so, um, easy?

But it's not JUST wackos on the edge of the world making it seem easy. Have you already forgotten about wire-walker Nik Wallenda's casual stroll over the Grand Canyon?

So, all things in all . . . it guess it's surprising that Lady Gaga hasn't been in space BEFORE now.

I'm just grateful that she's going at all.

God speed Gaga.

You go for us all.

November Days of Gratitude #2

Get Thankful everybody. It's the time after summer, between Halloween and Christmas, when we all have to tote up our blessing and remember that we have got it really good. Shove down those work frustrations. Put aside those unfulfilled life goals. Overlook those daily failings. Life is better than you think, says I.

How do I know?

Credit: images.cryhavoc.org

Well, today, I am thankful for tact . . . and I bet that you are as well.

Without tact, we'd actually say what we think. And if we did that, each day would be some sort of verbal Armageddon and we'd really be angry all the time because everyone would be confronting us with the worst version of ourselves . . . most likely the version of ourselves that we are afraid to admit to and that we really don't want people to deal with.

So, we hid behind tact and politeness and get-alongingness and we're all in this togetherness. And it is the glue that makes things stick. It is the lubricant that smooths over the rough patches. It is the grease that helps me get through a day when everyone is looking out for their own interests but I am worried that I'm never looking out for mine.

[And yes, I'm sure some of you might read yourselves into these sentences, and I can only say that this post is motivated by a single incident that happened to me this very afternoon at 4 pm and it happened when I got home and it isn't related to members of my family and it isn't directly work-related. So . . . I PROMISE . . . rest easy. This is NOT about YOU.]

See, how I just used tact and conciliation to ease your concerns--assuming you have any? I could have just left it out there and left you to twist and worry all night long wondering . . . Is David hating on ME?! But what did I do?!!! I can't have David hating meeeee! (I assume you are all worried about how I view you at all times.)

But I was tactful. I assuaged your fears. I'm not angry with YOU.
I'm just angry at THAT person over there . . . the one behind you, standing slightly to the side, the one that I'm directing my angry eye toward. THAT one . . . And BOY are they gonna feel the burn when I unleash my tact-less comments in their direction!

______ Days of Gratitude

It's a few days into November! And you know what that means . . .

Yep. All of Facebook is full up of people listing their thanks, their warm fuzzies, their moments of gratitude and secret thoughts for how great things are. And, really, that is great. I have lots of those things. The problem is . . . I'm keeping track of them . . . sort of . . . in a jar at my office desk (where I sorely need to be reminded of good things every now and then).

So I can't step all over the toes of THAT post, which will probably be written sometime in January 2014, when I sit down and review those slips of paper and then wonder why I have this huge hole of not noticing anything between June and (probably) December. (One may hope that I can proudly look on my ever progressing work project and say . . . oh, yeah . . . THAT THING.)

Still, who am I to pass up a good meme and force myself into doing some blogging. (Since I'm certainly NOT doing NaNoWriMo.)

So, now that I've let almost four days slip past me in this month of gratitude, I'll kick it off with this:

Item 1: I'm grateful that I am not living in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

If the worse happened, I'd end up like this little dude. (Credit: redditgifts.com)

Sure, it might feel that way . . . but trust me. We are NOT living through a zombie apocalypse right now. (And I should know, since I've read the Zombie Survival Guide, watched all episodes of The Walking Dead, and even played some zombie-themed board games.)


Because of this expertise, I can assure you that we are not currently experiencing the nightmare of relentless attacks from undead hordes. (Those are only the robo-calls for tomorrow's school board elections.)

If this WERE a zombie apocalypse, I wouldn't even be here. I would have bit the dust a LOOOOONG time ago. As my aforementioned research in this topic has shown me, I do not have the skills needed to fight off hordes of  walkers/skin-eaters/biters/what-have-yous. I would have twisted my ankle on day 4 and become some corpses' lunch before the weekend. No, I'm not equipped for such a catastrophe.

I know some techniques:

• fill up an upstairs bathtub with drinking water
• hide out with suitable weaponry on the second floor
• destroy the staircase, because zombies can't climb
• hope the horde moves on so that you can forage

 But its unlikely that you can rebuild a civilization upon such a flimsy structure.
I have no Scouting experience and I have proven many times over that I'm not much in the way of handiness. So . . . unless you need females to repopulate the planet or you need the occasional joke about LOST to get you through a tough day of fighting off the recently deceased . . . I'm just not your guy.

Sorry. . .

So, I'm happy THAT is not my problem today.

Some Birthday Time for Me

Yesterday I took a day off from work and celebrated my 42nd birthday. There was a possibility that Lynda could take the day off with me, but she couldn't justify the time off. So, I spent much of the day by myself. Here's what I did.

Morning--After helping get the kids off for school, I came home and updated a story on btw that I had pre-prepared on the debt ceiling deadline. Given that cooler heads prevailed (for once), I had a bit of adjusting to do to the story that was already written. But that didn't take very long, so once that was finished, I got to begin my relaxing.

Oh, but first I had to get my drivers license renewed. It was a good thing that I planned to use my free birthday Starbucks coupon, since the BMV was right next door to the neighborhood Starbucks. And the line was non-existent that early in the day, so in short order, I was legal again. (It happened so fast, I didn't even get time to read my book.)

Upon returning home again, I took a little time to read The Devil in the White City. I started (re)reading this during my trip to North Carolina earlier in the month and was getting close to the end. I was reading and waiting for the weather to clear up a bit, as I wanted to get outside some. Once I was convinced that I wouldn't get rained on, I got out of the house.

Midday--I drove over to Blendon Woods Metro Park and did a bit of hiking in the woods.

The trees were displaying the prettiest fall colors I've seen around here this season. Lots of gold leaves broken up by all of the dark trunks of the trees. The forest was very quiet overall, with lots of birds and only occasional other people walking along the paths.

I chose to take the path to Ripple Rock Trail. At the halfway point there is a pretty little creek that I wanted to sit beside and continue my reading. Unfortunately, when I got down to the water, there wasn't a bench to sit upon. And there wasn't much water running through the creek anyway, so I didn't get the sound I was aiming for. I kept on walking and found another nearby bench where I could sit and read for about another hour.

After a while reading, I headed back to the car. It started to rain a little bit during my hike back, but the canopy of leaves kept me almost entirely dry. I got some lunch and then headed home again. I called mom and dad and caught up with them, hearing about their recent travels and enjoying some time thinking about home. Then I read a bit more and soon it was time to get the kids from school.

Evening--I got the kids some dinner and waited for Lynda to come home. We went out last night and had some seafood at Bonefish Grill. And then we checked out Star Lanes, the newish bowling alley/game place/restaurant.

Even though I bowled terribly, we still had a good time. All in all, it was a nice day spent mostly by myself, but filled with quiet time and lots of relaxation. It was just the sort of thing that I really needed to do.

All throughout the day, I got lots of birthday wishes from family and friends, so that was always a welcome event. It was a good start to a new year. I hope I can hold onto that sense of relaxation and peace as I make my way through the challenges sure to come in the next year ahead. But as long as I can keep mindful of the many, many blessings I have, everything else should take care of itself.

Here's to 41 good years in the past and many more to come ahead.