Random Brain Dumping

I’m still thankful

The fourth Thursday of November is the day we set aside to give thanks for all that we have. It’s a time we get together with family and friends, but a week later, a month later, six months later, are we just as thankful?

Of course, I’m thankful for family and friends, relatively good health, and a good job, but I’m also thankful for so many little things we take for granted.

Such as …

• the scrunchy thing on a stick that allows me to wash my back. I find it odd that something I cannot see and something that I don’t touch can get so dirty that someone invented a scrunchy thing on a stick to help keep it clean.
• the soap bag that holds the slivers of soap too small to hold in my hand or washcloth. That bag is a lifesaver, considering the only soap I can use is no longer made, and the bars I have left (about three years’ worth) have to last long enough to find something else my body can tolerate.
• 

  Regular meals of guacamole meant I had an abundance of avocado seeds.

  the push panel on the top of my dishwasher that’s now working after I spend more than $200 to get if fixed when the 18-month-old appliance quit working properly, six months after its warranty expired.

• the new home phone (yes, I still have a home phone), that usually allows me to connect to and answer my cellphone via Bluetooth. It even announces the caller on either home phone or cellphone, but the announcements always sound odd. For example, the mechanical voice reads 4-0-4 as Fur-zero-Fur. Sure, I can turn off the announcement, but I get joy hearing the mispronunciations.
• the organic pellets I found at the Habitat Restore that irritate the sinuses of the pesky squirrels that dug up most of the seeds I planted in pots on my porch, eating avocado seeds, cherry seeds, and the seeds of that weird, slimy pod that looks like a mango sliced and pulled back to look like a flower. Trust me, the plant was going to be beautiful.
• the avocado trees that defied the squirrels and rooted anyway, one being about three feet tall now and thicker than a hotdog. I probably have at least a dozen baby avocado trees now, even though I don’t know where I’ll put them once they actually get big or how long they will take to bear fruit. I just know I’m looking forward to making guacamole from avocados grown on my trees.
• the automatic fish feeder that keeps my fish alive even if I rarely hear it actually working. I know it’s working because the fish have not eaten each other. What other animals eat their own kind?
• the hand-made quilt I bought in the middle of summer for my birthday nine years ago. Every year sine then, I’ve wondered where I can take a hand-made, king-size quilt to be cleaned. It certainly won’t go in my washer. It remains at the foot of my bed for cold nights – actually, it’s almost always there, even in summer.
• the neighborhood store that sells shea butter to keep ashiness (or as some say, “chapped skin”) at bay, particularly in the cooler weather. I will add here that I’m thankful for dictionaries, even though the one for Microsoft Word doesn’t recognize “ashiness” as a properly spelled word.
• the snow globes on my desk that I started collecting a few years ago during my travels. I did notice that in the New York City snow globe, the whole city no longer sits level. I wonder if Hurricane Sandy is responsible. I didn’t notice the tilt before then.
• the nine boxes of books I kept after my last move, books that line the 10-foot wide, six-level, single-piece bookshelf that takes up a whole wall. And …
• the flat tennis balls, which serve as mini spot-massage tools for the muscle aches that remind me I’m alive.

Related articles

• 13 Great Benefits of Eating Avocado Seeds (omtimes.com)
• National guacamole day (eatocracy.cnn.com)
• Super Food: Avocado (beachybrunette.com)
• Girl’s Crafty Snow Globe Nite (hippiedog.typepad.com)

December 3, 2012 Posted by Gwendolyn | Random Brain Dumping | Avocado, Bluetooth, Microsoft Word, New York City, Snow globe | Leave a comment