Final November Grateful Things

Two day’s worth, and the last of this month’s challenge:

Today, I am grateful for:

1. Anesthesia.  I got a temporary crown on my tooth today.  How the hell did people survive it before anesthesia?
2. Internet.  I found a very uncommon camera, the Mamiya Six, and bought it.
3. My work team, all 180 of them.  We took our annual holiday picture today.
4. Tylenol and hydrocodone.  That tooth again.
5. Deodorizers.  Something crawled into my darkroom and died.  The smell is nearly gone, even though I never found the critter.
6. Soft foods (that tooth).

Nov 28

Today, I’m grateful for:

1. Being able to purchase gifts for “Toys for Tots.”
2. Getting a certificate of occupancy (COO) on a property that has presented every delay possible (almost, no fires, etc.).
3. A sunrise power walk.

November 27

Today, I’m grateful for:

1. Time I get to spend with my kid, driving her to school, even though she’s usually listening to her music through earphones the whole way.
2. My wife, who’s working very hard to finish two real estate projects from hell.
3. Co-workers who challenge my assumptions.

Really? Three days this time?

Ok.  Nine things I am grateful for:

1. PG Tips Tea (England’s #1 Tea).
2. Shrimp mango salad at Passion Fin.
3. Not needing a root canal.
4. Steve Plaza and his wife having a new baby girl.
5. My daughter still likes to hang out with me.
6. Availability of film.
7. My eyesight improving.
8. Yukiko’s vertigo dissipating.
9. A long Thanksgiving break (ends tonight, though).

November 22 and 23

Again, two days’ worth of things I’m grateful for:

1. Thanksgiving, of course.
2. Ready-made Thanksgiving meals at Giant Foods.  The pre-cooked Butterbturkey is always better than I (or Wegmans) can make.
3. Pumpkin pie.  Instead of referring to it as “punkin pie,” I slipped and called it “pumpin pie” this year.  Busted by my daughter.
4. The Zero Institute.  Look it up on Youtube.
5. Three more days off.
6. Aojiru, which I am about to drink to make up for the lack of green veggies in my diet today.

November 20 and 21

I’m not doing well at making this a daily habit.  Here are two day’s worth of things I’m grateful for:

1. Having the Endodontist conclude that I didn’t need a root canal, after all.
2. A soft blanket on my couch, which I’m sitting under, reading a book.
3. Five days, yes five, of Thanksgiving break.
4. Fraud detection on pur credit card; it was used to buy a $1,000 Samsung product today, and not by us.
5. Further improvement in my retina.
6. A freshly painted wall in my office at work, where I’ll hang some new photographs.

November 19

Today, I am grateful for:

1. Sunday.  I needed the day off to finish off this cold virus once and for all.
2. Our fireplace.  Even though it’s remote controlled and gas, it makes the room feel nice.
3. Cough drops.

November 17 & 18

I am grateful for:

1. The chance yto go home and sleep after work; this cold is not letting up.
2. Picking my daughter up at midnight at IHOP.  It’s better than worrying about her driving after a 17 hour school/theatre day.
3. Keurig.  Good coffee easy.
4. Bran muffins at home.  My standard breakfast.
5. A dependable car (my Subaru is actually pretty great).
6. Improvement in my retina.

Today

Today I am grateful for:

1. I am breathing.  Right here, right now.
2. Warmth.  It’s getting cold outside, and I’m grateful for having good heating.
3. This moment.  Again, right here, right now.

Nov 15

Today, I’m grateful for:

1. An amazing job, with really wonderful colleagues.
2. Technology.  I just got a complete wireless flash setup that actually works for $20, brand new.
3. My eyesight, which continues to improve.

12th and 13th together

Today, I’m grateful for:

1. My Mom.  It’s her birthday today.
2. The ability to stay home, as I have a sore throat and want to stop it in its tracks.
3. Good bread from the Korean bakery.
4. A growing attendance at our monthly canera club meetings.
5. Ideas for creative projects.  I’m getting some.
6. The chance to take my 16 y.o. daughter and her friend to a concert in DC next weekend (a band called Grayscale).

10th and 11th together

I am grateful for:

1. The ability to write in cursive, which I regained several years ago, a nd practice , theee pages per day, every day.
2. The experience of attending the opening party for DC FotoWeek last night, a $60ticket that I bought on a last minute whim,
3. My best friend, Russ, who I spoke with today.
4. The chance to have a couple of long discussions with a colleague, Ken Regnier, at the Mondful Leader conference we were attending this weekend.
5. A wonderful Japanese lunch at Mikaku with my lovely wife, Yukiko.
6. The day off tomorrow, even though I’ll spend much of it driving.

Nov 9

Today, I’m grateful for:

1. Further improvement in my eyesight after my first intraocular injection.
2. The fact that my job includes a Mindful Leader Summit tomorrow.  I’ll learn something, at a conference many companies would not support.
3. Improving communications on my team.  We’re working hard at it.

November 8

I've decided that it's okay to be grateful for the same thing multiple times during this month-long exercise.  Sorry, but modern medicine will keep coming up, maybe some other things.


Today, I'm grateful for:

1. Modern medicine.  My uncle's cancer has come back after his surgery a year ago.  Apparently, it's widespread, with such small developments in each area that previous scans didn't detect it.  C'mon, Modern Medicine, show what you can do to save him.
2. Determination and discipline.  I get more of it every day.  It's one of the very few benefits of growing older.
3. The spark station at work, where I can do some quality soldering and cable-making for my camera hobby.

The Seventh

Grateful for:

1. The opportunity to attend a Mindful Leadership Summit as part of my job this week.
2. Further improvement in my vision.
3. The opportunity to work from home this afternoon.

Day 6

Today, I’m grateful for:

1. My darkroom, which is a working reality because of the kindness of friends.
2. On that subject, friends.  Specifically, three of my oldest friends: Russ, Erich, and Wade.  And Todd.  And ...
3. The lack of daylight savings time.  Because we fell back on Sunday morning, it is now plenty light for me to easily do my walk at 6:30 am, without a flashlight.

Day 3 - Grateful

Today, I'm grateful for:

1. An abundance of clean water.  Many people don't have it.  I can't imagine how hard that must be.
2. The Grateful Dead, who've been on my mind since the beginning of 30 days of gratefulness!
3. My health.  Imperfect and temporary as it may be, I'm grateful for it.

Day 2

I am grateful for:

1. Modern medicine, including the injection I got in my left eye yesterday, which promises to maintain my vision in spite of macular degeneration.
2. Coffee.
3. My travel experiences, so far in this life and in the future.

Three for Thanksgiving in November

It’s November 1.  My 30 day project this month has to do with Thanksgiving.  Each day, I’ll write about three things I am grateful for.

Let’s begin with family:

1. My nuclear family - my wife, who’s an amazingly smart, fun person with an incredible flair for business.  My daughter, who is truly the light in my day.
2. My parents, whom I still have in my life.  This includes my biological father, my step-father (a retired US Marine who’s tough-as-nails and caring to the extreme at the same time), and my mother, who not only gave me life but also made sure I got every chance at success, right up until I became an adult.
3. My grandparents.  I lost my paternal grandfather to suicide very early in life.  The remaining three were with me until very recently.  My mother’s father, the last to go, died on my birthday last year, December 21, 2016.

Good start.