Now that the awful winter is behind us, the birds have started singing just before dawn. That and the sunshine on my head. I feel entirely different.
The other evening I stepped out on my deck and heard the frogs singing. Thousands of tiny voices, all saying, “I’m here! I’m here! I exist!” Lovely.
I love running a pen out of ink. Mundane and pointless, to be sure, but it’s a tiny thrill that I got the full value of that particular pen. It didn’t walk off in someone else’s pocket, it didn’t travel in one of my pockets to the laundry and bust all over a load of clothes, it didn’t dry out, didn’t get mysteriously gloopy and refuse to write well and get tossed…nope, I used every last bit of that pen right up!
I no longer have to go out in the morning and check that the garage door is not frozen over – I can just open it from inside!
But the best is the birds that migrate through these days. The latest new one was a fox sparrow. And we’ve seen this year’s groundhog – they like to live under the front porch and come out and hang out on the front steps.
One of our IT guys refers to letting data/systems/processes “bump and grind” – um, I don’t think that phrase means what you think it means. Maybe he doesn’t know because he thinks rap should be banished from existence and extends that to R&B as well.
I wait for my bus in the morning in front of an elementary school. It always helps to start my morning off with a smile to watch the little kids arriving - skipping, bouncing, running, chattering - all full of energy and cheerfulness. (And every one with a ginormous backpack!)
For me, it’s “Surprise! We’re having a baby!” videos and other big surprise videos. I love watching the surprised party cry with joy. I can even put aside (for the most part) some of my animal person hangups for some of the puppy-for-Christmas videos.
For my part, I work with kittens as my everyday job. There’s nearly always something happening to make me smile.
“Da da home! Da da home!”
Spending time with Sasha. This sweet pup was hit by a car. The amazing folks at the shelter where I volunteer got her face all fixed up. It left her with a silly, crooked smile. She’s also recovering from heartworm. We had the best time. She’s happy and silly. She scampered around and played ball and tug a little. Mostly she wanted to be cuddled. We are hoping to find her a forever home soon.
Maine coon kitty fur. My god, is she soft! I’ve pet bunnies that weren’t that deliciously pleasant on the fingers. The only thing to top it is my three year old’s skin. She’s a gloriously little peach.
Listen carefully to their sound. Record it, if necessary, for future reference. In another month or so, the chorus will be a completely different species, singing something else. It will brighten your day to realize that there is a difference, that they are no longer just frogs, and you can hear the difference. Those are the kinds of things that make my day.
Oh, this was a week or two ago, but the base I work at normally just operates big transport planes. One day I’m waiting at a red light, and listening to this song, “Spectre Induction”, from the Mass Effect soundtrack. Right at the 00:23 mark, a pair of F/A-18s came cruising in for a landing nearby. I don’t know if the pilots had any idea what sort of entrance music they had. 
The other day, this year’s first scent of newly mown grass.
On a daily basis, lots of things: the color of the sky; friendly exchange in town with a stranger for some mundane reason; children/animals that are beside themselves with joy and seeing this acknowledged by parent/owner with a combination of pride and embarrassment; having friends, health and just enough money…
Two and a half years ago, when I left my husband and the farm we lived on, I had to move my beloved 24 y.o. Appaloosa mare to live at a friend’s place, instead of at home with me. I have missed being able to just look out the window to see her grazing in the pasture.
Early this month, that same mare developed an impaction colic, which can be fatal. She was in the Oregon State University Large Animal Teaching Hospital for six days. At one point, things look really grim and I thought I was going to lose her. Thankfully, 24 hours later, things turned around and she recovered completely.
This weekend, I am house-sitting for my dear friend where my mare lives as a companion to her horse. I am delighted several times a day to look out the window and see the horses, healthy and happy, peacefully grazing. :):)
There’s a pair of cardinals who have made a nest in the bush right outside my front door. I can hear them when I get my paper in the morning, and I see them coming and going from the bush all the time. They’re just so cheery sounding and I love their colors.
The tulips this year are just amazing after that long, cold winter, they are so colorful and happy.
I love these things too and look forward to them, along with seeing dogs riding in cars with their heads out the window. They look so simply, supremely happy, how could I not be witnessing that?
I also love where I live, because people just reflexively help each other. For instance, when I came to a stop behind a pickup at a 4-way stop today, the pickup driver put his vehicle in park, jumped out and came to my window just to let me know my passenger’s side headlight was out. People here look out for each other, even when they don’t know each other. How sweet is that?
I was laying down with my son talking about his 8th birthday and suddenly he whispers, “Mom, you and Dad are always there for me when I’m sad or mad or lonely. No matter what, you love me anyway. And I love you.”
I can’t stop crying since he said that (though luckily I got out of the room before the waterworks started). It was so damn sweet, and sometimes I just feel like a huge fuckup as a parent. That really helped me feel good.
So many things.
When my husband and I share an inside joke. And we have many.
Getting a “Jeep Wave”.
My dog and I were out running the other day and a lady was pulling out of her driveway. I don’t know her. She waved and gave a thumbs up - I guess she’s a runner too.
My husband and I and my best friend and her husband have this thing about sending each other pictures while we’re on the can. I think my husband started it when we were all in Victoria, BC and he went to the bathroom at Cora’s restaurant. The pics just show our pants and feet and the bathroom floor and we send them randomly.
I just read this story on our local news station’s website. Blah blah train derails, nobody hurt, mysterious bridge collapse - interesting enough to make me click on it, not really a very interesting story though… and then ““It was really like the Duke boys,” Salisbury said. “He came up to the bridge and flew across the missing part of the roadway and landed on the other side.””
Well THAT’s your story, WIS! Talk about burying the lede!