What I'm thankf

Boy is this wine good.
Wait, is this thing on?

I was in a bit of a torpor after this, which happens shortly after recovering from drinking about a gallon of smoothie with grapes, an apple, a lime, some pineapple, and a bit of kale for lunch. I'll get quantities figured out sooner or later.

Do I really need to tell you what the meal was? Regular readers will know. If you don't know, and really want to, leave a comment and I'll give you the juicy details about how it all melted in my mouth, and went together so very, very well.

There was some news at work the other day, but I won't share it till the paperwork is signed. I'm just a bit paranoid like that, reasoning that until then, it might not happen for any number of reasons. I've been riding the oil patch roller coaster for a bunch of years now, and have come to learn to expect anything.

In other news, we were thinking about what a wonderful life we are leading, and got to talking about luck. Many people would say we are lucky, and to some extent that is true. We won the country lottery mumblety years ago by being born here. Since then we've been working pretty regular, Linda more than me, and have been prudent about how we spend money. We've had some investments that have done very well, in particular buying a house at the PERFECT time in the housing market.

We were discussing how life seems to favor some people, and other people seem to be working hard but never have anything come of it. No doubt, life is not fair. Opportunity does not knock equally on every door. I personally believe that opportunity is much more likely to knock if you've shoveled the sidewalk, and the porch light is on. A sign saying free coffee for opportunity is probably trying too hard and will spook it.

The other thing is more subtle, and I'm not sure if I can explain it. There are some people that don't just need a coffee in the morning. They NEED a double-shot, skim cream, shade grown fair trade coffee beans that were shaken to dust not chopped, with cane sugar and 23 grains of cinnamon, in a glass cup with soy flavor mixed with a dash of chocolate riffle raffle swirled 3 times in counterclockwise motion by a left handed barrister with red hair, or their day is RUINED. It doesn't matter. No matter what they get, how good or cheap it was, or how much better than what everybody else has, it is still not good enough. They think they somehow deserve more. Better. Faster. Cheaper. Whatever. I blame television.

Screw them. I like a coffee in the morning, but don't need one. When I have one I drink it black. I'm not terribly fussy about it. Hot, black coffee. Strong is better than weak, but I'm not fussed about it. I don't care if the other people in line think I'm a weenie because I don't order something fancy in the coffee barista language, or we don't drive a fancy car. We drive a Honda Accord that is coming up on 9 years old, and don't have a second car. Every now and then we use public transit, or take a taxi, (though I live in dread of getting the speed demon with no fingers; can you believe doing 80Kph down 5th St under the railway tracks? I nearly wet myself.) and lately I've been using car2go when it works out. I know this will make an entire generation of ad people have heart failure, but I don't care the slightest about what they think of a car implying status. Except that in my experience people driving Hummers and BMW's are dicks. A car is transportation, preferably reliable, nothing more.

Happiness is a state of mind, not a state of possessions. Yes, some of the stuff in our house makes me happy, otherwise I wouldn't have it. But my happiness derives from appreciating what I have, and not being fussed that other people have more stuff, or maybe better stuff, or got it cheaper, or whatever. I got my stuff because I needed it, and it serves a purpose, not because advertising sold it to me.

I'm happy that after a great many years of wondering who and what I am, I'm coming to terms with it, and to be honest about it, I don't really care what anyone else thinks. That's a good thing. Well, maybe Linda, but then, she knew all that before I did and was wondering what all the fuss was about.