Tag Archives: Grateful

Thank you for reading!

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I was looking at the statistics for my blog yesterday. I realized, that this is the fifth month my blog has been in existence. I am grateful that I decided after a few years of thinking about starting a blog. What I am more excited about is you take the time to read what I write, that is the real excitement of my blog!

Some days are fun, and some are hard when I am sit here typing a post. Some days, I am really comfortable with what I am writing, other days I feel like I am really stepping out on a slippery ledge. Through these last months which seem to have been so quick, you have taken the time to read my thoughts, find something useful, or at least a worthwhile read. When I was a poker forum junkie, I would go from site to site, and inhale every word that someone took the time to write. Eventually it dawned on me that I had been reading mostly the same things every day.

That was one of the big hurdles I had with this blog. Power Blogger’s suggest that a blog stick to one main subject, and everything be written towards the blog’s focus. They also suggest that articles be kept to three hundred words or less, because longer posts tend to turn off readers. There are some other rules that are out there that I should have be following too, but I have not. That was one of the things that kept me from starting earlier, I could not imagine how I could have a blog that anyone would actually read, when I was going against all the generally acceptable ideas about blogging.

The five months this blog has been in existence have shown that what is right for me, is absolutely okay. If I was writing this solely for myself, I would still be saying breaking rules is correct. I have read of other who have started their blogs, and they say they are enjoying amazing results, and I am happy for them. I have been to some of their sites, and most of them I will not be going back to because they are targeted at a specific audience for a monetary reason. I wish them the best but that is not my purpose at this time for my blog.

I thought it was kind of interesting the other day, when I was thinking about a comment my wife made to me. My wife had mentioned out of the blue, that if skate boards were out when I was a kid, I would have been a very good Skateboarder. I mentioned in reply, that I would have enjoyed it because fear does not enter in my life very often. My wife replied, “I know.”

Good or bad, everything you have read for the last months is what goes on in my head. If my writing was dragging, or moving fast, you have read my thoughts, and so many of you come back again and again! I am glad what I chose for the correct path for my blog, is something you too enjoy. I hope that you find something worth your time out of what I write, even if it is nothing more, than you mentioning to someone, that you wonder how I manage to get through each day writing what I write.

I am also grateful, that you are not grammar critics. I work full time, and all my typing tutor software has never helped me achieve anything above twenty words a minute. I have this odd three finger, two finger typing style with an occasional flurry of using all my fingers as I should. You have been kind enough to over look my odd wording, and my grammar errors – thank you for your patience.

What makes this a blog and not a personal diary, is you take the time to visit and read. Thank you for being you, and reading what I write! I hope at some level, my blog helps you in your life, even if that is only a laugh, or a how not to for your own life.

Thank you!

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Grateful for change and you being part of it!

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I was happy for vacation during Christmas, which was half of our holiday season. I was so busy enjoying Christmas for a change, I never had a chance to think about it. It’s behind me now, and it was nice as it lasted. If you read my blog you read some of my frustrations as well. What prompted my blog, is one of the things I am grateful this week.

When I was a child we would get rare phone calls during the holidays. Usually Christmas, New Years, and Easter were the big days. People from out of town would lay down a few dollars to call our house, extend holiday greetings, and do a quick catch up on life since the last phone call. That was back when a phone call like that was a few hours work by someone to pay for the talking.

As a teenager, it was great fun to pick up the telephone, and ask to be connected with an operator somewhere in the United States. Once connected I would make a few seconds of small talk, and then end the connection once they caught on to me. That was about as big as my world was at the time, somewhere in the States.

With computers, there are very fast connections to all over the world. I have spoken with people in Denmark, Germany, England, Malaysia, the Philippines, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, New Zealand, and Canada as easily as you are reading this. All it took was a little daring on my part, and a lot of patience on theirs. We traded thoughts, and hello’s, sometimes even simple conversation, even in their native languages! Written language seems to have commonalities that spoken language does not.

Now with blogging, my world is even a smaller place. No longer am I reading, and sharing one line messages, but reading and sharing complete thoughts, ideas, and concerns. I am grateful for this opportunity because every year more countries and people are online and sharing. When I read something that was written, I can focus on the ideas.

I have the opportunity to share ideas, and concerns in my life. When reading and posting, it does not matter how many areas of our lives are different, or how little we have in common, what happens is we start enjoying what we do have in common. We start to see and understand, that under all our layers, we are people. We want the same things for the most part.

I prefer a life that can be lived in peace. I want my family, and children to be safe. I want a comfortable life where I want for nothing important. I had always felt that deep down all people wanted the same basic things for their lives, but the internet has made it possible to know how alike we really are. It was odd at times when I would be trading messages with someone when their country, and mine were having problems, sometimes small, sometimes not so small. But both of us, one sentence at a time, reaffirmed to the other we wanted peace to prevail over all else. What a warming thought that was when it happened knowing that perhaps our country’s disagreed, but we were the same, and wished for the same things.

Which brings me to you. I am grateful you take the time to read this, and learn a little about me in the process. It does not really matter if you are down the block, or around the world. I am grateful you are here. Hopefully we share the same wants for ourselves, our family, the world.

Because others like you taken time with me, I have learned a lot about you too, and I enjoy the idea that such good people like you are out there. I hope we can continue to make the world smaller, and a better place for us all. Thank you for your time, for learning about me, and for being you!

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Grateful for life and death lessons from pets in my life

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My first day off of my work week today and it sure feels good to sleep in. It would feel better if my cat did not have to come and wake me up to see if I am really supposed to be getting up or not, but we sometimes have to accept the good with the bad. It provides balance in our lives. I am grateful for all the pets I have had over the years. They help me prepare for everything in my life.

I had turtles when I was very young. I only remember because I did not know how to take care of them when it was time for them to hibernate, they started to stink instead of sleep like I was told they would do. While I never learned how to create a place for turtles to hibernate, I did have a quick lesson in death.

Next it was Guppies I had in a glass one gallon aquarium. I was given some weeds to put in so the guppies had some place to hide. They hid so well, when my Mom decided to clean the aquarium we counted over ninety guppies in various stages of growth. Deciding there was too much weed, the population was quickly reduced by guppy cannibalism. I learned about predatory behavior from Guppies.

We also had dogs over the years. One was a Spaniel/Labrador mix who had been hit by a car as a pup. His stomach muscles were hurt, and his belly was very low to the ground. One of the neighbors accused him of jumping a six foot fence and breeding with their Chihuahua. I was too young to understand about sex, but I did learn that sometimes people tried to pass off stories that were not completely true. That poor dog could barely climb stairs without dragging his belly let alone jump.

A few years later another dog who had made into his late twenties was dying in a painful way. My Mom and Dad talked it over, and decided the best thing to do was put him down. Put him down meant a bullet in the head in those days. My Mom took out the vacuum cleaner, and furiously started vacuuming an already clean floor as my father went outside with the dog, and did what had to be done. He was gone a while, but when he came in my Mom and I knew the dog was asleep, never to waken again. I learned about sorrow, and loss from that dog.

Next was a horse my folks had bought me. He was a Tennessee Walker colt. I could not ride him as he was too young, so he roamed the pasture with my sisters horse. One week we had some friends horses in our pasture, along with our own, and they were close to fighting. It was cold outside, so I dressed in a jacket with a hood and went out into the pasture among the horses. My horse picked me up by the hood of my coat and shook me all the way to the fence, and then threw me over the fence. I did not know it at the time, but I was given a harsh lesson in love by animals for their human family members. I do remember crying for about thirty minutes though….

Some years later the Spaniel/Labrador was at the end of his life. He was arthritic, and moving even slightly was very painful for him He could no longer walk, and did not care to eat or drink water. A family discussion was held, and it was decided that I would be the one to put him down. I had to carry him from the basement to the appointed place. I remember how hard it was to see where I was walking, stumbling at times. I said what I could manage to get out, and pulled the trigger. As much as it hurt, I knew what I did had to be done for his benefit. I learned about life, and love that day – and the pain of loss.

Many more animals came and left over the years, all of them leaving me with those special lessons that only a pet can give. I am grateful for all of them, and hope there are many more pets waiting for their turn in my life.

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Grateful for a bowl oatmeal with coffee or tea

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As I was making a cup of coffee this morning, I was thinking about what I am grateful for today. I threw out yesterdays coffee grounds and rinsed the permanent filter out. Then I rinsed and filled the cup with water so I could fill the reservoir. I put the cup back where it goes, and pushed the power switch down. In about three minutes I have a great cup of very hot coffee that I simply pour into a better cup than the insulated travel cup the Brew n’ Go brews into.

I have been using this little one cup maker for a number of years now, and I have been very happy with it. It has replaced my Braun coffee maker, and it replaced my French press coffee maker, although my French press makes a slightly better cup of coffee.

The Braun coffee maker makes an excellent cup of coffee, it just makes too many of them at one time. I do not see the sense in making a single cup with a big coffee maker. The French press makes the best coffee, but it too makes more coffee than I usually drink in a morning, unless I am really into twitching that particular day.

I have owned my thrifty little Brew n’ Go for a number of years now, and it has rarely failed me. The only problem I have had with it is a the little one way valve where the water is let into the heating unit, comes out every few months. I simply push it back in and it is good for another three or so months.

A second of my favorite drinks in the morning, and occasionally later at night is a nice hot cup of tea. There is nothing challenging about making tea. I am all for simple is better, so for my cup of tea, I simply fill a mug with water, drop in a tea bag, and heat it up in the microwave until it is just short of boiling. I then let it sit and steep for about two minutes, and I have a great cup of tea waiting for me. I have enjoyed different teas in different areas of the country and world, but a few brands do stand out for me. I really enjoy Rose tea. I also enjoy a Japanese tea, Yamamoto Yama Green Tea. I think they are good value for the money and they taste very good.

I am happy having a nice bowl of oatmeal these days for breakfast. There is nothing outstanding in the oatmeal department in my weekday morning. I usually am very happy with the Walmart brand of instant. It is quick and I think it tastes okay. Others have told me it is not that all that great, but it works for me.

One the weekend though, especially in the winter, I really like to make a steel cut oatmeal that is imported from Ireland. The oatmeal is named John McCann’s, and it is different than oatmeal most of us are used to eating. McCann’s oatmeal has a different texture and a nice nutty flavor that is really good with a little butter, and some sugar to sweeten it up a little.

I have moved far away from my little coffee maker and into breakfast, but I am grateful for these other foods too in the morning. They make life a little more interesting, especially on the weekends. Now if I could only find some black cherry tea here locally. There is one brand here that I have found, but it tastes like hot black cherry soda pop. Not exactly my idea of a good hot drink.

I do not live in snow country, but I used to live in the snow belt. When I did I would have been really grateful if all the snow that fell overnight, or was pushed back into the driveway by the snow plow would remove itself without my help. Unfortunately, that would be moving from being grateful to fantasy.

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Grateful for you during Christmas!

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I have been thinking all week about what I could write that someone wants to read about that I am grateful for this week. I ran through my list of everything I am grateful for that I have not mentioned yet, and none of it seemed worth mentioning because it is too trivial, or important just to me.

Every day I sit at my computer I see a box of Christmas cards off to my left. They are not special cards, or expensive, just the every day run of the mill cards that we buy at the store to fill out and mail to each other. I imagine for someone who has never been in my computer room they would seem out of place. Whether it is January or July for a number of years now, they would see the same box of cards.

The reason they are here and not in a landfill a decade go is not because I filled them out and mailed them, is because I have not. I tell myself each year, I am going to address the cards, write something personal inside of each one, and mail them. Every day this time of year I tell myself I am going to do it tomorrow for sure. I started telling myself this year I was going to write them them tomorrow back in October. That way they would be ready for December, and I would actually mail them for once.

In the mean time every Christmas season I receive Christmas cards from family and friends. I receive just enough that the guilt of myself not sending any out again is enough to spur me on to keep that box of cards out until next year. Every day they are out, and I see them I am reminded of my family and friends who have sent me cards over the years. I am grateful for those who do send me cards every Christmas, and I feel guilty I never manage to myself. This year is going to be different, or so I tell myself once again. I am going to surprise everyone who has just about given up on me. I am going to fill them out tomorrow and have them in the mail.

I have decided I am going to do the same thing with the packages I never manage to get in the mail until after New Years. Packages are a lot different. The post office gets so busy this time of year, and the carriers are working a lot more than they should have to. Then because it is so busy, all packages receive some pretty rough treatment. They get thrown, slammed, and crushed. I do not want that to happen to packages I send, so I end up rationalizing why I should wait until after New Years to send them out. That is usually when my Christmas packages are sent. Around the fifth of January.

Now my shameful secret is out and made public about Christmas. I am one of those people with great intent, and terrible follow through with Christmas cards. If you are one of the people who year after year send out Christmas cards to people like me, I am grateful you are there and you send them knowing you probably won’t hear from me. I am grateful you think enough of me for whatever reason to know how much I treasure each and every card, and how bad I feel I never mange to let you know that.

If you are someone just like me I am grateful for you too. I am grateful for you, because the reasons I am grateful this week, will be perfectly obvious to you because you are just like me. Which ever group you are in, I am grateful you are there, and you do what you do. Keep it up, I sure appreciate you!

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Grateful for family, friends, and you too!

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Today is my Sunday. Some special things have happened since last week. First was getting together with family for Thanksgiving. It is always fun when the family is together in one place. Old stories are told because they are always funny and everyone laughs. New stories are told, and laughed over. We take time to see how individual families are doing, how the kids have grown up, who the the grandkids look like, and ourselves. We sit down and play games, and I get to watch the interaction as family members change back to the time when they were all kids playing Monopoly on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Once home, I found an email waiting for me from a family member I haven’t spoken with in a long while. It sure was a surprise and a special treat for me on the end of Thanksgiving weekend! The world is so spread out and vast in some  ways these days. We move, move again, and we lose touch with each other as we mold our lives, and our future. One day turns into a week, then it’s a year, and before we realize it, a long time has gone by. Perhaps that is one of the things that makes this time of year so special. We think about friends and family we have not seen or spoken with in a long time. We have those special memories from times long past, when our world was another shade of perfect.

Back at work, some of my friends asked how my blog was doing, and some probing questions around it, audience being one them. I talked about the subjects I find I enjoy writing about.  They offered some tongue in cheek suggestions for increasing readership. Among their suggestions is becoming more political and move out towards the edge, any edge, or both edges where people have strong feelings. They offered up many suggestions which include:

Pro Bush

Pro Clinton

Take an anti green stand

Global warming is a lie

Global warming is going to end our world

Support abortion

Support pro choice

Animal rights – either side

Support baby Seal hunting

Cheer for the whale hunt

Support fur clothing

Motivate people to support burning more coal for energy

Reducing emission controls

Gun control – either side

Pro War, anti War, more war

Suggest we all send money to the helicopter wolf hunt in Alaska

Cheer for China’s use of the U.S. and perhaps World market as a dumping ground for its use of lead and other contaminates in their exports, in a covert effort to dominate the world by poisoning our children with deadly toys

Support RAP and Gang Banging as the American way of life

The list went on of course, the more we talked about it. While I am grateful for their suggestions, and I have no doubt people would get worked up no matter what stance I took on any of those topics, it just is not somewhere I want to be. It took me years to understand that people have their opinions. They usually do not change their opinions for less than very compelling reasons. So if I went down any of those paths as blogging topics, I be forced to move from a place where I feel comfortable to an area where argument and controversy reign. I do not care to be the blogging version of a radio Shock Jock.

While my friends are being supportive of my efforts and want me to quickly move up the ranks in blogger-hood, I will stick topics that I feel are worth my time. I want to come home from work, and write about what I enjoy, and feel is important. I do not want a blog about  something that I may not only not enjoy, but find it gets in the way of my enjoyment of life.

This brings me to the final piece of what I am grateful for this week. I am grateful you take the time to read what I write. I hope you continue to find it worth your attention and more importantly your time. Further I hope somewhere along the line, you read something that helps you or someone you know. Thanks for reading!

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