Five things that made me happy today – 7/13/20

Love liberates. It doesn’t just hold — that’s ego — love liberates!

Maya Angelou

1. Really nice day (finally). It’s been sunny all day, 68 deg. felt warmer in the sun. Today was a 2-shirt day (long sleeves in the morning – T-shirt in the afternoon.)

2. Lunch today was steak, garlic mashed potatoes, and fresh green beans. And I have enough green beans left over for a supper sometime this week.

3. Heather Cox Richardson did a webinar focusing on her book, How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America. I wasn’t able to make it in the Zoom meeting (too many people), but I found the recording on the Wilson Center’s website and I will watch the whole thing tomorrow morning.

4. The laundry is all washed, dried, folded and hung up.

5. We had Driveway Happy Hour this afternoon. Drinking wine and sitting in the sunshine in my driveway with snacks provided by Franke Tobey Jones..

Gazebo Group on Zoom followed the Happy Hour. We got caught up on all the happenings at FTJ.

How about you? What made you happy today?

Five things that made me happy today – 7/12/20

If comparison is the thief of joy…help me not compare my life to my life six months ago. Help me find joy in THIS life and THIS day.

Nadia Bolz-Weber

1. Turned out to be a nice day, weather-wise, but a little cool. “They” originally promised high 60s, but we struggled to get to 65 deg. after the marine layer burned off.

2. My Alexa had quit responding about three weeks ago. I tried everything suggested in the app, rebooted, etc., and nothing worked. She just sat there like a lump. Then, Friday when we came home from Trader Joe’s, her yellow light ring was on, and I asked her what the yellow light ring meant. She said I had a message, so I asked her to read it for me. It was a message from Amazon offering to reorder Metamucil for me. I said no because I didn’t need any, but Alexa has worked fine ever since. Spooky.

3. In church this morning the preacher talked about Shiphrah and Puah, the Egyptian midwives who saved lots of baby boys (including Moses) from Pharaoh’s edict to kill them at birth. It may have been the first act of civil disobedience in the Bible. The hymns hit all my favorites: “Blest are they” (aka the Beatitudes), “They’ll know we are Christians”, and “We will rejoice” (to the tune of “I’ll fly away”)

4. We tried a new pizza and salad place for lunch – MOD Pizza. It has a detailed order and pay on-line website, and offers curbside pickup. Big Al had a build-your-own pizza, and I had a build-your-own salad. Even better, it has a running calorie counter as you add things to your pizza crust, or salad greens. Very handy and tasty.

5. Great Zoom call with the Greisser Girls. It’s fun to have sisters to holler with, and laugh with, and commiserate with, and share joys with.

How about you? What made you happy today?

Five things that made me happy today – 7/11/20

Feeling down? You know what I do. I step outside. I look at the birds…the trees… Soak it in! Look around.

Johnny Corn

1. It was decent weather today. 55 deg. when I woke up to the sun streaming down the hallway at 6:10 am. That was the brightest we had because the “marine layer” moved in mid-morning, and then the clouds thickened later in the day. We got a little bit of rain between 4 and 5 this afternoon. Most of it broke up over the Olympia Peninsula.

2. I spent an hour this morning reminding myself of one of the reasons I will (hopefully) never leave the Pacific Northwest. Enjoy this National Geographic documentary about Olympic National Park and Mt. Rainier National Park.

3. We had chicken, stovetop stuffing, and I had leftover purple hull peas with salsa and Big Al had leftover Aunt Nellie’s pickled beets. The chicken breasts I got in the Safeway order were enormous. I tried to finish off the barbecued chicken from the 4th of July, but I had some of that left over, too. It can all be frozen. I think I see chicken noodle soup in our future.

4. Yesterday at Trader Joe’s, I bought myself some flowers. I’ve got them in the living room on the dining room table and they are making my heart sing every time I  walk in the room.

5. My Achilles seems to finally be on the mend. I walked around the Duplex Circle and then over to the Wellness Center today, after walking to the garden yesterday. I’m still taking it very easy on the hills (of which there are many), but I’m able to go a little farther and a little faster each day.

How about you? What made you happy today?

Five things that made me happy today – 7/10/20

Sitting under a tree in a park in the summer, listening to birds and squirrels chirping while reading a good book is priceless.

Charmaine J. Forde

1. Really nice day today once the sun came out. Gentle breeze, blue sky, and 73 deg.

2. We went down to Trader Joes to get a few things that only they carry. The line to get in wasn’t too long.

3. We had cold cereal for breakfast so I could fix migas for lunch. Didn’t think multiple eggs a couple of times a day would be good for us.

4. Big Al got a haircut (the first one since the “stay-at-home” order has been lifted.) He looks pretty good. I went to the garden and watered and then to the Wellness Center while he did that. Then we decided, on the strength of the pretty weather, that it was time for a Blizzard. I think we had one, back in April, but otherwise, this was the first one this summer.

5. This is a rerun from this day last year. Please click through to this great piece of nostalgia on Medium. It hit all the feels for me, last year and this one, too. Have the Kleenex ready. (It was first published in 2014, but you can still enjoy it today.)

How about you? What made you happy today?

Five things that made me happy today – 7/9/20

Nothing is certain and every little thing is beautiful; the pandemic taught us that.

Bhavik Sarkhedi

1. The weather is still overcast, but it was much warmer (69 deg.) today. We had a few little spitting showers – not enough to keep me from watering tomorrow though. The sticky low is still sitting off the coast pumping moisture into Western Washington.

2. The bombshell news this morning was the Supreme Court granting access to the President’s tax returns and financial records to a court in New York. It may not make much difference to the election, but, who knows?

3. I loved reading Bill McKibben’s newsletter today about the successes in the past week, vis-à-vis the fossil fuel industry. It seems like we may finally be making progress against all that. Cutting off the supply of crude oil also has the added benefit of making plastic much less profitable. Be sure to check out his scorecard at the end of the letter.

4. Big Al and I tried a new takeout place for lunch – The Pita Pit. Al had a gyro with lettuce, tomato, pickles, and thousand island dressing. I had souvlaki, with avocado spread, lettuce, tomato, onions, mushrooms, cilantro, roasted red peppers and boom boom sauce. Excellent! It had the added bonus of being a new black-owned business who just opened at the beginning of the pandemic. We felt really good giving them our money, especially since it was really inexpensive, and they offered us a Senior Citizen discount.

5. I managed to get over to the Wellness Center and polished off my steps for the day. Whew!

How about you? What made you happy today?

Five things that made me happy today – 7/8/20

If I understand that “race” is a human-made social construct which considers some people to be superior and some to be inferior and you believe that race is a God-given designation to divide human beings into different castes – then we have a problem.

Jan Edmiston

1. Decent day, weather-wise. High clouds with quite a bit of sunshine. High of 70.

2. I returned to my roots today, and spent the morning and early afternoon struggling to get Quicken to tell me what I wanted to hear. I managed it, and feel really good about my reconciliation skills. The old USAA investment account is empty, and the balances have been transferred to Schwab, and then on to Ameriprise.

3. . Pork chops, corn on the cob and cinnamon applesauce for lunch, with purple hull peas for me and pickled beets for Big Al.

4. I managed to get over to the Wellness Center and got my steps in even though I was a little late because of the bookkeeping. 10,000 steps done and dusted.

5. We had a nice rain overnight. With the rain and the good soaking I did yesterday, I didn’t need to go over to the garden to water.

How about you? What made you happy today?

Five things that made me happy today – 7/7/20

There was something horribly depressing about watching the weather report. That life could be planned like the perfect summer picnic drained it of spontaneity.

Galt Niederhoffer

NOTE: Apologies that most of my “5 Things” are not happy. Sorry that today conspired to put a damper on my enthusiasm (just in case you thought I was channeling Pollyanna.)

1. We’re back to gloomy skies and temperatures in the 60s. Even the TV meteorologists don’t know why the stupid low keeps pumping clouds into our weather pattern. My kids have suggested several reasons for this anomaly – brain eating amoeba, COVID, rampant racism, killer bees, killer wasps, locusts, the Saharan dust storm, the great Pacific garbage patch, our dysfunctional president. I’m personally leaning toward the great Pacific garbage patch messing with the ocean currents, and consequently our weather. We’re killing ourselves.

2. In Bible study this morning, we read the first chapter of Exodus. The Pharaoh’s attempt “other” the Hebrews is eerily reminiscent of the current administration. Too many black and brown people – let’s a. work them to death, b. require them to work in unhealthy conditions, c. take their kids away from them, etc. Not really happy about this, but it needed to be said.

3. Standard Tuesday lunch – Chef Salad for Big Al, and egg salad sandwich for me.

4. I spent a couple of hours this afternoon trying to untangle my records from where USAA stopped their investment service, transferred everything to Schwab, and we decided we wanted to use Ameriprise instead. I’m still not convinced my Quicken is right, so I guess I’ll spend some more time tomorrow on it. I just wish I was getting the $500/hr that I would charge if I were still a CPA.

5. The housekeepers came today and I have clean sheets on the bed, clean bathrooms, a clean kitchen, and swept, vacuumed, and mopped floors. (Finally something to really make me happy.)

How about you? What made you happy today?

Five things that made me happy today – 7/6/20

Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.

William Shakespeare

1. Not too bad weather today, although they did threaten a return of the gloom. 53 this morning, and possibly, 65 deg. this afternoon for the Driveway Happy Hour..

2. My Anna’s Hummingbird has found the hanging basket on the front porch and is gorging on the nectar from the pink flowers.

3. Ham, sweet potato, and fresh green beans for dinner today. I LOVE all this. It takes me back to my grandmother’s house in Texarkana.

4. The laundry is washed, dried, folded, hung up and put away before the Driveway Happy Hour.

5. For Driveway Happy Hour we had wine, soft drinks and snacks. Made it back in time for the Gazebo Group on Zoom. Whew! Busy day.

How about you? What made you happy today?

Five things that made me happy today – 7/5/20

A garden is made of hope.

W.S. Merwin

1. Blue sky this morning when I woke up, and up to 70 by the time church was over.

2. The sermon was about Zacchaeus. The preacher pointed out that Zacchaeus not only repented, he also tried to repair the damage he had done by returning the money he had stolen. Is this what Black Live Matter movement is trying to say when they ask for reparations?

3. I drove down to Royal Thai for dinner today and picked up Pad Kee Mao for Big Al and Singapore Noodles for me. He loves the flavor of Pad Kee Mao but he’s not fond of the mushrooms and Thai basil, so he picks them out and gives them to me. I get the best of both worlds.

4. I actually walked down to the garden and watered. So far my Achilles is okay. We’ll see tomorrow morning if it stays that way. I’ve got lots of yellow squash, and the green beans are covered with blooms, but the tomatoes still look sad. The cilantro and thyme are coming along fine.

5. Harriet had company this weekend so she wasn’t able to join the Greisser Girls call. Betty and I did fine without her (although we missed her scintillating wit and wisdom.)

How about you? What made you happy today?

Five things that made me happy today – 7/4/20

Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.

Mark Twain

1. Today is the 4th of July, Independence Day. As I sit in enforced isolation because of a virus that has no idea of boundaries or borders, I am heartened by the number of people who seem to be willing to fight to share their independence and prosperity with those of our citizens who have never had it. I pray that we finally will recognize how we have harmed our black and brown brothers and sisters in the past, and vow to put the scourge of white supremacy to rest for good.

2. The weather is greatly improved today. The sun came out about 11:00 am, and the high today is 71 with lots of sunshine and little puffy white clouds.

3. #2 son decided to take this day off to drive to, see, and hike around a Pacific Northwest treasure – the Grand Coulee Dam. My grandfather worked on building earlier dams on the Columbia from 1908 through 1933 and was part of the design team for the Grand Coulee. He invented, and held a patent on a mechanism that helped the locks work.

4. No picnic for us this year. We’re staying close to home and social distancing. I fixed barbecue chicken in the oven for me, and Bush’s baked beans with frankfurters for Big Al. I also made potato salad. I guess we had the picnic food, without the actual picnic.

5. I took the car over to the Wellness Center and got all my steps in for the day. I’m walking laps around the center in addition to using the NuStep. So far so good, easing back into walking for my exercise. If my Achilles is okay tomorrow, I’ll walk over to the garden to water. Hills seem to be the catalyst for my ankle acting up, so I’m still being really careful.

How about you? What made you happy today?