Thankful Thursday

I am thankful for many things.  Some are important in general, some are more individual and personal...

1.  Generally safe and clean food and water.  It takes work for the Government to assure that.

2.  Cats.  Mine are individually good to me, and getting along better with each other.  And that they use litterboxes.

3.  Inexpensive but decent wine.  A dinner without wine would be lacking something and I refuse to buy wine that costs as much as my dinner.

4.  My Federal retirement annuity.  It is inflation-adjusted and will last until I die.

5.  Computers and the internet.  They aren't exactly the same.  I love the internet for the communication, but I do things on my computer that don't require the internet.  I use Word and Excel a lot.

6.  My local butcher/deli/liquor store.  And the great sales they offer weekly.

7.  High-def consolidated cable TV.  I know a lot of people use streaming services, but I can get 90% of what I want in just one place.

8.  Civilization II.  It's an old game, but it is always a bit challenging.  No two games are the same.  And there is no time-clock.  I can play at my own pace.  Then leave and return to the same game later to continue it.

9.  My house.  I've lived here 38 years.  I can walk around it in the dark by now.  It has an easy circular traffic pattern for the kitchen/living/TV room and then a hallway that leads to 3 "bedrooms".  Of those, one is a bedroom, another the computer/library room, and the 3rd is The Mews Room.  And I own it outright!  And happy for a full basement and built-in garage.

10.  My car.  A nice, practical compact SUV Subaru Forrester.  Also owned outright.  

11.  Credit cards.  A wonder of the computer age.  I withdrew $200 from my bank ATM a year ago, and most of it is still in my wallet.  I only have 3 and they are automatically paid off in full each month.  And I get cash back and discounts from each.  Well, one is from Amazon and is dedicated to purchases there.  A second is dedicated to routine monthly bills.  The third is for all other purchases.  

12.  Sports.  I don't watch them generally, but I am a home-boy.  I watch the local professional baseball and football teams (casually), and University of Maryland football and mens/womans basketball (more intently).  

13.  Modern medicine.  And by "modern" I mean "in my lifetime".  I could have died from a severe hernia as a baby.  I could have died from a nearly-ruptured appendix at 18.  And I love vaccines.  The standard childhood shots helped.  And I'm happy to have gotten the shingles, RSV, and pneumococcal shots.  I get the flu and covid shots every year.  

14.  Books.  When I was pre-kindergarten, Mom home-schooled me about letters and words.  First, I started school with an advantage.  Second, it taught me to love to read.  I read every in the house (dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc.  By the time I was 12, I had exhausted the library's supply of "young adult" books.  Then I switched to adult science and sci-fi.  Books taught me as much as school-days did.

15.  Telescopes.  I am not and never was a religious child or adult.  Science explained things better.  And astronomy was my favorite way of learning.  Telescopes of various kinds have gotten so much better since I was young.  When the Hubble was repaired and started showing fabulous pictures, I nearly cried from joy at seeing them.

16.  Magazines and Newspapers.  Yes I still subscribe to some.  Scientific American, Cook's Illustrated, Wood, Archeology, Consumer Reports.  I get detailed information from each one.  And The Washington Post newspaper.  Regarding The Washington Post newspaper, it feels entirely normal to me that it is my International, National and Local newspaper.  

17.  Career.  Out of college, I ended up in minimum wage department store jobs.  I knew I was better than that, but I couldn't figure out where to try.  I didn't like sales jobs, I'm not good at getting money from others (an ethical problem), and I wasn't mechanically skilled.

A friend suggested I take the Federal Goverment exam.  It was called the Professional Administrative Exam (PACE).  I aced it in all 6 categories at 2 grade levels (99th percentile in all).  I was offerred a job temporary job in "general office" work at the General Services Administration (GSA).  They had WWII veterans retiring and needed replacements.  GSA provided equipment/furniture/supplies/office space/telephone services for the rest of Government.  And this office provided internal agency support for all those things.  Talk about "general", LOL!

After 4 weeks, Management asked if I would take a permanent position.  DAMN HELL YES!  It was the perfect place for me.  I thrived and advanced.  I always got the most difficult jobs and I loved that.  I retired happy, satisfied and missed.

18.  I'm sure I will think of other things to be thankful for in a few hours, but I think it is time to end this post.  You all have other places to visit and I am late to make lunch.

😁 

Oops, got the day wrong...