Sunday, September 7, 2014

Lucky Stars: The Week In Thanks

About five years ago I had two somewhat nasty incidents with popcorn kernels getting stuck in my throat. I figured that it was time to retire from it, until a few months ago when I decided to give it a try. Whatever the hangup was is gone now, and I smiled in the theater yesterday while munching on a movie-sized bag.

This morning I woke up with Cupcake snoozing on my chest. There's something very laid-back and comforting with a warm little body purring happily against you.

As much as I like sitting outdoors during the summer, there are years when there are just enough "sweat bees" around to sting irritatingly once every few weeks. This has not been one of those summers.

My physical therapy bill for the knee came in. It was half of what I anticipated!

My fantasy baseball teams have been rallying. They're ranked fourth, third and second. There's still a chance of grabbing a couple of trophies with a good showing this month.

Dena is as honest as they come. I was trying out my Austrian accent for her in preparing for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in the spring. "Sounds Irish," she said. I can be thankful not only for the validation of my ethnicity, but for the advance opinion and motivation to get to work well before auditions.

ISU teaching wrapped up successfully this week. In all I was able to get seven students into State Farm to do job shadows, pass out my business card. The $800 doesn't hurt either.

Our new carports are nearly half done, and the weather's been cooperating splendidly.

The mysterious skunky smell in our upstairs hall & bathroom has taken the last two days off. Hopefully it's a permanent vacation. I was even good with taking a long bath on Friday night.

Speaking as a former Catholic schoolboy, I'm glad that church dress has swung as casual as it is these days.

This week I have (so far) 13 hours of tutoring scheduled, still ahead of last year's pace.

I overheard a story about the movie Schindler's List and the threat of being gunned down by Nazis almost on a whim. That is so, so far off of the civil peace here that lets me take Cupcake for a late-night walk without a thought of safety. It's one of the true unheralded luxuries of modern times.

I like the way stars in the night sky serve as an everlasting reminder of how small we are in the universe, and with it, how small our problems are, how short our life is, and how valuable every day is.

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