Big Ugly Man Doll

I’ve decided to count down to Thinksgiving, and take a moment each day to think about things I’m thankful for. 

Number Four:  Great Neighbors.

It’s hard to overstate this.  Sometimes you just have people who live near you, and sometimes you have neighbors.  We have neighbors.  They come over, borrow things, and return them in better shape than they were when they left.  Our neighbors once stole my car.  They washed it, waxed it, and brought it back.  (Honestly they may have been worried that the car was lowering their property values, but still.)

Our neighbors call when they need help with things, even if those things are just helping to finish a bottle of something yummy.  They help us with these things too.  (“Oh, no!  We have too much wine over here, someone come to our rescue,” is not a wholly uncommon cry on our block.)  Great neighbors make coming home from vacation less like coming home from vacation and more like coming home to tell new stories about what happened while you were away. 

A great neighborhood, worth being thankful for since that other tribe moved in over the next hill.

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I’ve decided to count down to Thinksgiving, and take a moment each day to think about things I’m thankful for. 

Number Five:  Technology.

It’s not just for breakfast anymore.  It’s not just a job.  I really love the modern conveniences that a high-tech world enable.  There’s a bit in the fourth Harry Potter book, Goblet of Fire, before he and the Weasleys attend the Quidditch World Cup; Harry ducks into the tiny pup-tent that Mr. Weasley has set up, looking a little dubious.  He steps inside, straightens up and looks around to find, like the TARDIS, it’s bigger on the inside.  He gazes in wonder for a moment, and says, “I love magic!”

That’s about how I feel every time SOBUMD whips out her iPhone and does something amazing, which is to say, nearly daily.  It’s not like I don’t know how it works – I’m a techie.  I’m just not quite used to all the things that have become possible.  When we’re driving and a song comes on the radio that I like, but no one knows who’s singing or what it’s called, she whips out the magic and tells me the name of the band, and the song – by having the iPhone play “name that tune” really fast. 

Or a few years ago, when we decided to send Holiday pictures.  She took a picture on the digital camera, uploaded it to a site that helps you put Holiday pics together, decided what it should say and how many we wanted, and clicked go.  I worried that with shipping they’d be late getting to us, that we would be too late to send them before the 25th.  She just smiled.  “They’re at CVS.  They’ll be ready by the time you get there, if you leave now.”  Magic.

Arthur C. Clarke said it best:  Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.  He was right, and for that, even though I know how it works, I’m still thankful.  It’s still a little bit magic, deep in there. 

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I’ve decided to count down to Thinksgiving, and take a moment each day to think about things I’m thankful for. 

Number Six:  Fridays. 

Seriously, who hasn’t had more than one moment of TGIF – it’s been a really, really messed up week, and you’re just ready to relax for the weekend.  You could taste it waking up this morning, couldn’t you?  You were just as ready as the next guy for a decent beverage, and the next guy is Mel Gibson, isn’t it? 

Friday night is why god invented painkillers.  Sure, Saturday morning dawns with the consequence it has, but by Friday you’re ready to live this day like the next will never come.  Friday leads straight, sure as the day follows the night, to that which we’re all working for – the weekend.  Friday is a zipline to 48 hours of honey-do lists and soccer games, catching up on laundry, shopping, and remembering what your spouse looks like during the day.  But just as a bad day fishing beats a good day working, whatever your weekend plans are, they’re more exciting than going to your office on Monday or Tuesday morning, aren’t they?  (If you answered no with a straight face, you really need to get out more.)

Happy Friday to all, and to all, a good weekend!  How could I leave you, but with this:

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I’ve decided to count down to Thinksgiving, and take a moment each day to think about things I’m thankful for. 

Number Seven:  Power Tools.

Heck yeah!  Every couple of months, when my neighbors aren’t looking, I get out the power tools and turn them on.  If you try, you can use lots of things all at once – which may be why my neighbors come running over when I use them.  This weekend I’m going to fire up the chipper, turn it on its side, and then fire up the leaf blower and blow all the leaves into the chipper, to their doom.  Anything caught near the chipper’s event horizon will be sucked in and shredded to mulch – which may actually be what a Black Hole is doing, for that matter.  Or should I say, to that matter. 

So, I’m thankful that gasoline hasn’t been outlawed yet (you laugh?), that more than just cars go vroom all low and growly like, and that I have great neighbors who have thus far prevented me from cutting off too many digits while juggling the Sawzalls. 

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