Small Triumphs

It’s easy not to pay attention to the small things that go right, the small triumphs.  For example:

1.     I took my sick bonsai to a flower shop in Japantown and the woman behind the counter diagnosed the problem.  She said my plant was infected with spider mites.  She sold me a can of spray that will make my bonsai healthy.

2.    2.       My new computer arrived two weeks ago.  Changing computers is a traumatic process at best.  This promised to be doubly traumatic, because I was changing from a PC to an Apple.  I’d never used an Apple before.  With research, perseverance, creativity and luck I managed to migrate my data to the iMac, get the programs I wanted installed and running, and learned enough about how to operate my new computer so that I was able, yesterday, to unplug and remove my old PC.  Now that I think about it, this one may qualify as a big triumph.

3.      3.      I hate getting packages through the U.S. Postal Service.  Too often I miss the delivery.  Unlike UPS and FedEx they won’t automatically redeliver the package. They’ll keep it at the Post Office.  This means I’ll need to go there, find a parking place, stand in line forever and then endure another long wait while an incompetent employee searches for the thing.  During the past week I’ve had multiple USPS deliveries.  Fortunately, every time I’ve been here to take delivery and have avoided the hassle of fighting their system.

4.   4.      I have a DVR and record almost all the TV I watch for later viewing.  Sometimes, by accident I find out something I don’t want to know.  Like the score of a game I haven’t yet seen, or the finale of a show.  I’ve been watching “The Shield,” for years and the final show of the final season aired last night.  No way did I want to know what happened.  But there were multiple articles on the series in every newspaper I read.  I managed to avoid seeing them and now look forward to being surprised (or not) by what I see when I watch what I’ve recorded.

5.       5.      As I said, when the small things go right it’s easy not to notice.  Like every day when the newspapers are delivered.  When the plumber shows up on the right day and on time.  When months go by without a power outage.  When the guy across the street who likes to party till the wee hours on his front patio is quiet.  When the car starts every time.

      And more . . .

      Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  Take time to be thankful.

      

I'm Back #2

It's been more than two months since I posted a blog comment.  Shame on me!

I had excuses - of sorts.  When you last heard from me I was about to leave on a 3+ week trip to Italy.  Then I was back for a little more than a week and went away again for 8 days, to Vegas and Sedona with our friend Pam to help celebrate her 60th birthday.  Then I was focused on getting my Dear Old 97-Year-Old Mum moved to a new apartment.  Then I was consumed with getting a new computer up and running (still consumed by that project), which has been more challenging than normal since I changed from a PC to an Apple.

But all my excuses notwithstanding, I want to get back into posting regular blog pieces and continuing with the other writing I'm doing, so today is about getting started again.

So much hads happened during these past two months.  We got Obama elected.  Yes!!  I was very nervous on election night - until Ohio went for Obama and I knew it was a done deal.  I could hardly believe it.  And the Democrats did well everywhere.  Yes!!

Watching my net worth plummet as the economy has gone into the toilet has been an unpleasant experience, with a large bit of helplessness thrown in.  In the good old days there were places to hide, like overseas.  These days there is no place to hid.  It is definitely globalization at work.

I can still count on Stewart and Colbert to keep things in proper perspective.  I can still count on real football to satisfy me more than the American variety.  I can still count on my wine cellar providing taste delights.  I can still count on my overlook of the bridge and the bay being a stunning sight.  I can still count on the Lovely Ms Marsh to provide wisdom and balance in my life.

Not bad, huh?

OK, I've stuck my toe back into the blogosphere.  More later . . .

I'm Back

That last one didn't work well.  I'm trying to figure out how to paste an entry from a word file into this blog site.  I'll keep trying and will let you know when I'm back up and running.  This problem may have something to do with my move from Windows to Apple.  Also I keep getting error messages saying "Autosave failed."  Need to do some investigating here.