The kids are out of school, this week. In the US, we have a holiday where we give thanks for the blessings we’ve had throughout the previous year, and it’s this Thursday. And, since things have been rough for me for a while, I’m going to spend this post focusing on the positive.
The kids are both healthy as goats (I know the saying is “as healthy as a horse,” but horses can drop dead of colic with no warning, and all the goats I’ve been around have been robustly healthy). They’re now 13 (my son) and will be 11 in two weeks (my daughter), and are growing fast. My son’s taller than me–which, I admit, is a low bar: I’m under 5′ tall. My daughter’s hands and feet indicate she’s going to shoot past me when she kicks into her next growth spurt.
We have a very solid house, which had a new roof put on last April. We have enough to eat, a private well (no water bill or sewer bill to the city), and we have heat. We have enough for necessities (like the new tires I need), and a few non-necessities (like a Christmas budget that stretches to a little more than the kids).
I’m thankful I’d seen the writing on the wall where the current shortages and inflation levels are concerned, and that we sprang for the desktop last year. I’m doubly thankful about that, given the sudden reduction in reliability of my laptop (I really hate that there’s no way to just…leave a flash card in it for backup as I’m working, but the geniuses who designed it did so in such a way that the card sticks out for half its length…).
God was very good to me when we tried one last time to figure out a way to get the laptop to let us get my documents. I prayed all day (alternating pleas for help getting what I needed from it, with pleas for help finding my equilibrium if we couldn’t get my documents off), handed it off to Andrew, and he powered it up…and the lock screen came up for the first time in two full days.
Part of the reason I’d prayed for acceptance is because I’d finished Liquid Diet Chronicles: Having a Pint (to the tune of nearly 60K words–the next most-finished draft had just under 58K), and finished the first draft of The Schrodinger Paradox (over 100K words, there, with the closest version on backup coming in at barely over 60K words). And that doesn’t count the nearly 20K words’ worth of short stories I had finished drafts of (and am still working on editing…and writing on another 10K words’ worth).
So, yes, I’m very thankful that we were able to get my documents off my laptop.
And I’m thankful that I can sit at the desk and write. I’m thankful that the keyboard cord is long enough (since the wireless keyboard is…iffy…about working right) that I can put it in my lap, and thankful that the wireless mouse works fine. Otherwise, I’d have to figure out some type of bracers for typing, since I seem to be allergic to the desk (parawood–if you’re allergic to latex, you’ll be allergic to parawood, since parawood is made from retired rubber trees). So, yeah: long keyboard cable and wireless mouse working are blessings to be thankful for.
I’m thankful to be living in the middle of the nation, and in an area where potential rioters are (rightfully) afraid they’d get shot, and that the idiots protesting are smart enough to realize that doing so in the road will get them hurt by the locals.
There’s so much more that I have to be thankful for. And I’m thankful that I’m aware of that–it means I’m a lot happier than a lot of other people who focus on their grievances, real or (mostly) imagined.