Ten Things...

Lately, some journal writers have been terribly concerned about what their writing has revealed about them.  Whether it has painted a picture of the real person, or only shown one, perhaps not too beautiful, aspect of that person.  I think sometimes my writing paints me as melancholy and "holier than thou."  Though there is a certain amount of truth in this, there is a little more to me than that.  So just to prove that there are aspects of my life with which I am content, I thought I would compose this list of 

Ten Things For Which I Am Eternally Grateful

1. …that cat puke doesn’t share the olfactory characteristics of human puke, or I would be spending a lot of my time with my head in the toilet.
2. …that way back in 1981, husband and I had the incredible wisdom to purchase a brand spanking new SR5 Toyota pick-up, which continues to spring to life the minute (almost) you turn the key in the ignition. It looks like hell, but it will never die. That truck will probably transport us to our fiftieth wedding anniversary party.
3. …that in the fifth house we’ve owned in our married life, I finally struck paydirt, and got my 330-sqare foot master bedroom with a fireplace and a walk-in closet. Notwithstanding the fact that it has become the repository for every piece of furniture that didn’t fit anywhere else in the house, and appears to have been decorated with Antiques Road Show rejects.
4. …for the set of Corning Ware I received as a wedding gift, of which I still have most of the pieces, and which I still use almost daily. It is totally seventies mushroom print, but short of taking it outside and smashing it on the driveway, I haven’t figured out how to kill it so I could buy something more twenty-first century. So the venerable old mushrooms faithfully ferry my eggbeaters into the microwave every morning.
5. …for pellet stove "technology," that gives me a warm, cheery, flickering fire without dirt, spiders, mildew, and the general mess of dealing with wood. Not to mention the early morning calisthenics of hacking into the woodpile to turn huge chunks of tree trunks into something fit to use as firewood. Now, all I have to do is rip open a bag of rabbit pellets, pour them in the hopper, and hit the "on" button. Instant fire. Does it get any better than that?
6. …that I live in the most beautiful state in the country. One hour from the incredible Oregon coast on one side, and the "ring of fire" on the other. Sunsets, pyrotechnics, soaring eagles, snow in summer, paddle-wheel riverboats, dawns, ice cold trout pulled from ice cold water, hermit crabs, dogs on endless beaches, rolling hills upholstered with acres of grapevines, hundred-foot waterfalls, the world’s largest *name the tree*, hummingbirds, rose gardens, sandhill cranes and whistling swans, rain forest and high desert, and on and on and on…
7. …music. Symphonies, "mid-century" oldies, new age classical, big band swing, Broadway or Hollywood musicals, native American flute… I don’t believe the minds and hands of mere humans are responsible for the glory of music. It is the one nearly undeniable proof of a Great Spirit.
8. …that television remote controls include a "mute" button. And an "off" button.
9. …that somewhere, somehow, in some long ago, far away desert dwelling, some human being looked into the beautiful, inscrutable eyes of a cat, and felt compelled to extend that marvelous animal the hospitality of sharing his abode.
10. …that thirty years ago, less a couple of months, a nineteen-year-old mustachioed, mutton-chopped hottie with aviator glasses and long straight brown bangs hanging over one eye, sauntered up to me and handed me those spectacles, saying, "Hold these for me, will ya?" before bravely (drunkenly?) sallying forth onto the volleyball court at a K-Mart company picnic at Fort Sheridan, Illinois… And all that came after.