I dunno, seems like a fair thing to do, what with all the grumbling that lingers around here to proffer some positivity. Here’s mine, feel free to add yours;
Road construction guys; Thanks. That resurfacing job you did on my route home every night (10 of 21 miles of it anyway) was done quickly, easily and without much inconvenience. Imagine my surprise to find you’re all packed up and the road you’ve been working on for just over a month is completely done. The scarfing, the pouring and manicuring of the asphalt. Done.
This one still gets me, and it happened over 10 years ago.
To the person in Kauai that found a dozen filled out, addressed, but unstamped postcards on a picninc table off a hiking trail. I knew we’d left them there way too late to do anything about it, and my wife didn’t get a chance to fill out new ones before leaving for the airport as it was the very end of our honeymoon.
Thank you for hiking them out of there, paying to put stamps on all of them, and mailing them. Imagine our surprise upon hearing from those relatives that they got the postcards!
Just yesterday an elderly gentleman followed me into the parking lot of a bookstore. I didn’t really notice him until I parked and saw him roll down his window and wave to get my attention.
“Scuse’ me, fella,” the old boy hollers as I’m getting out of the car, “I’ve been behind you since Atlantic, and I wanted to let you know your brake lights are completely out.”
I thanked him profusely for the heads up, and for going out of his way to let me know. Just in case you’re a SDMB reader, mi amigo, I owe you a beer.
Thank you nice lady who unloaded my Target cart so I could tend to a fussy baby. You will never know how much that meant to me!
Thank you nice lady at the Clerk & Master’s office who very nicely helped me find a court file for an attorney in my office. I walked in not having a clue as to what I was doing and you helped me bunches.
Thank you Little Jelly Roll for sleeping through the night last night. I know it has been hard for you with those 4 teeth coming in all at once, but I truly appreciate the 8 hours of uninterrupted rest I got last night.
Thank you, guy who drove over to my place to drop off a free monitor.
I’d been searching for one closer to where I live (no car) and when I told your wife thanks, but her home’s a little too far, she said you’d be in the area anyway that evening.
You didn’t want to accept anything for it but eventually took the $15 I offered, if only for gas.
Thanks to the random customer who emailed us today to say that they like the daily spam reports we send out.
You don’t realize how much yelling people do about email. It sucks, a lot. It’s nice when someone takes a moment to recognize something you did right with the email system because that all goes un-noticed.
My most recent thanks are to the unknown people who found the fully-loaded wallet I left at the supermarket checkout and turned it in instead of stealing it. I would gladly have given them a reward but the courtesy counter worker did not know who they were.
To the guy at my IP: Thanks for letting me know my site had been hacked and was being used for spamming, and for being a sport about helping me resolve the issue instead of being accusatory. You were awesome in helping get the issue resolved quickly, and I’m happy to provide information on our last uploads to assist in your tracing of the hackers.
Thank you Psychologist who told me “Just do something NICE for yourself for a change” until I could get to the Psychiatrist who could prescribe me actual anti-psychotics. She really really listened and helped a lot more I think than the guy who just wanted to throw a bunch of pills at me that made me fat and stupid and numb.
Thank you to the sanitation engineeer who picks up our garbage every week - you always take the time to wave to our little girl (3 yr old), as she watches you from our living window - and you give her such a big genuine smile, she just loves you. She thinks you are a very nice man and you have lucky kids.
Thanks to the waiters and waitresses - including fast food folks. You work a shit job for shit money being consistently nice to assholes who ream you for mistakes they’d brush off if they’d made them themselves.
My brother has that job and there’s one house where the kids absolutely HAVE to be in the window to wave to them every week or they get really upset (according to their mom). Gives my brother and his crew a smile every week.
Thanks to the folks at church a couple of weeks ago who leaped to take care of me when I nearly fainted while teaching my Sunday School class; got me a glass of water, offered to drive me home, and called the next day to see how I was. I’d had a high fever the day before and hadn’t eaten anything, and then I was on my feet for half an hour for that class. I was fine in just a few minutes and made it home safely.
Thanks also to the city engineers and road crews who have been working (finally) on our ring-road. I drove the new stretch a few days ago and was so impressed with it. Well planned, beautifully done.
And big thanks to my divorced brother’s new girlfriend. He’s been bitter and cranky and miserable for five years, until he finally noticed you’d been right under his nose for years. You’re awesome, and you’ve made him happier than I’ve seen in a long, long time.
Thank you, city of Cumberland workers, for replacing the water manes on my street. The old ones were positively ancient. You (the city workers) had told me that after the manes were replaced, I “might notice an improvement in water pressure”. Might “notice an improvement”??? Hell, now someone in our house can take a shower while someone else is washing dishes or running a load of laundry! The water pressure has improved dramatically, and it was all accomplished with a minimum of tearing the street up, etc.
Great thread, btw. Kind of the opposite of “Mini-Rants”.
I have said it before, but it bears repeating: Thank you nurses. Yours is a tough job and with only a few exceptions I have been blessed with amazingly caring and wonderful nurses. Thank you.
Thank you to whomever you are that fixed the timing of the lights at Routes 11/15 in Camp Hill. Yesterday, I heard on the radio traffic report that traffic was greatly improved and was flowing along nicely. It was good to hear that things are finally moving instead of becoming a parking lot during rush our.
Thank you to the really nice dude at the Y yesterday. When I walked into the gym last evening and wanted to know how to use the machines to “work on my arms and legs” you patiently explained each machine, what muscles it would work, showed me how to use them, then helped me try them out. You went above and beyond helping with your encouragement, and helped an unsure member become more confident in moving along the path to get healthier. Thanks to you, I can feel muscles this morning I didn’t even know I had! (Abs, I’m talking to you!) And, I’ll be back again soon to start my regular workout on the machines.
Thanks to all the Physical Therapists out there. I think it is a tough job and knowing you are hurting your patient–but knowing that hurting them pushes them into healing themselves is a tough job.
After pulling my quad last month my PT’s have finally pushed me so that I am walking with one crutch now! Five weeks ago just standing up and walking to the bathroom was something I dreaded, now I feel my life is finally starting to get back to normal. I think I will be walking here without crutches in two weeks!
Thanks mainly to the Physical Therapists and of course my lovely wife and daughter who have been so supportive,
