Thursday, November 22, 2007

What I am thankful for



Happy Thanksgiving everybody. I have already had my Thanksgiving feast. It may seem odd to you to have a feast at 3:00 AM, but I have to be at work at 8:00 PM tonight so I went ahead. I did not have any turkey because I don't believe in cannibalism. It was only me here and I really am not much of a cook, but with the help of prepared foods I enjoyed beef tips in gravy, mashed potato's,(or as Rumpole would call them, mashed spuds) corn, rolls, and of course pumpkin pie. There is even enough left that I can have this meal again.

This is what I am thankful for:

I am alive. Seven and a half years ago I was shown just how fragile life is. My wife of almost 22 years died suddenly from a blood clot. She was two weeks shy of 45 years old. I learned two things from this. First, always let those you love know how much you care. You may never get another chance to let them know. Second, don't sweat the small stuff. We tend to worry about too many things that we can't change. Take life as it comes and react accordingly.

I am healthy. I am 51 years old and other than my "flu surgery" 12 years ago,(more about that in a later post) I not had any major illnesses. I spent 16 years working in housekeeping in a nursing home and two hospitals. I learned to be thankful for being able to get up in the middle of the night just to go to the bathroom. There are people who would love to do that and can not.

I have two jobs that I truly like. I really do like putting items on shelves. The same with my duties at Taco Bell. Both jobs don't require my full attention and I can do a lot of thinking and planning while I work. My plan for now is to keep both jobs, but by this time next year I will either not be working at Taco Bell or I will only be working two days a week there, their choice.

I like living in Georgia. I grew up in Illinois and the only thing I don't like about there is the fact they have winter. It does get cold here but nothing like there. I got frostbit when I was 13 and my hands ache for a long time now when they get cold. I know what you are thinking. But you stock frozen foods. Yes I do and I have a one word answer for that-gloves.

The Captain Comics Message Board. I spend a lot of time there and have made some very good friends there. It is a very friendly place and we do talk about a lot more than just comic books. After all there is a lot more to life than just comic books, but they are a lot of fun.

I am thankful for my family. I don't get to see them as often as I would like to, but I still have both of my parents. My Dad's health has not been good in the last few years but he still is hanging in there. Last year he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, but they managed to get it. I am hoping sometime in February to go see them.

There are other things I am thankful for, but I am going to wrap this up. The last thing I am going to mention is I am thankful I am currently alone. I had a relationship that just ended last month. We were together for almost four years. The last year was bad. I am not going into much detail about it at this time. There is still pain there, not from the end of the relationship but the way the ending was handled. I will talk about that later. Right now I may end up saying some things that I will later regret. My plan is to write it out and edit it daily until I am satisfied that I am not too vicious.

I hope you all have a great day. Happy Thanksgiving every body.

Quote Of The Day
Be the change that you want to see in the world.
Gandhi

3 comments:

Radiodad said...

You're wise to wait on writing about the breakup, Howard. If I had had a blog during my divorce, I'm sure I would have written some things that would have been full of spite and hate. Time does heal. It's at different rates for each of us, but it does work if you let it.

Happy Thanksgiving to you, too!

Jinxo56 said...

This is a different pain than what I felt when my wife died. With this I alternate between anger and sadness. I really didn't have anger before. Time really does heal. Each day gets better. Friends help a lot. Thank you for being my friend. Have a great day.

Rob S. said...

We're all thankful that you're back on the board, Howard!

Happy Thanksgiving!