express gratitude daily

We had our presentation today. To make a long story short, we came out on top…big time.

We receied superb backing from our leaders and others. My team and I were at the peak of our performance. A meeting that was scheduled to go from 8:00 a.m. until about 6:30 p.m. finished up around 3:00 p.m. with pretty much everything going our way.

Six months of hard work by my team paid off.

Thanks to the patience shown by Mrs. viii and the family. And many thanks to my friends at 43T who were kind enough to wish me well on the critical day.

Several members of my staff have worked with me for the past six months on a presentation that we will be giving on Monday in Washington, DC.

Today we gave our final practice brief to some of the people who will be attending the DC meeting to help advocate our position. It went extremely well. We spent a few hours in the afternoon putting just a few finishing touches on the charts. They are ready to go. What we have is what we have. We are beyond the point of no return.

Our presentation looks great and tells the story that we need to tell. I’m grateful to my staff who helped work on this issue almost ceaselessly for the last six months, at great personal expense to themselves. I’m also greatful for my upper management, which has backed me, unwaiveringly in this effort, and for other allies who have crawled out of the woodwork to support us.

I think we’re ready now.

About two months ago there were about three or four wedding receptions held in my neighborhood, all in the same week. I saw a lot of the same people at these receptions. At one of them I talked to a friend of mine. He left just a few minutes after I arrived. A few minutes after leaving, he sent me a text, asking me to try to bring home an extra piece of chocolate cheesecake (for him).

I sent him a text back saying that I brought home a piece of cheesecake for him. I told him that it was sitting out on the porch by where the cat likes to sleep. He was welcome to come by and pick it up.

Since that time we’ve had a running gag about chocolate cheesecake.

Yesterday Mrs. viii wasn’t feeling too well. I stopped by the grocery store on the way home and saw that they had a chocolate cheesecake on sale. I bought it to cheer Mrs. viii up a bit.

Then I decided to call my neighbor. When he answered the phone, the first words out of his mouth (before “Hello” even) were, “Have you got my chocolate cheesecake?”

I told him that I had one and to bring his family over so that we could enjoy it together. Of course he didn’t believe that I had one. After a few minutes of talking about it he said, “You really have a cheesecake, don’t you?” I told him that I did, and that I wanted them to come over.

A little while later he showed up with his wife and son. We enjoyed the cheesecake and a lot of good conversation.

Mrs. viii enjoyed it too.

Since her surgery last Monday, Mrs. viii has spent the last several days in bed, recuperating. She has gotten up only to make a follow-up visit with the doctor and to take care of certain neccesities.

Today she had her first appointment with the physical therapist. She ended up having the same therapist that I had a couple of years ago after I broke my arm. I thought that Jen was a great therapist. She worked with me for quite a while, but eventually helped me to get back to the point where my arm was pretty much back to normal.

I was so pleased that Mrs. viii was able to have Jen. From the very beginning Jen was able to instill a feeling of confidence in Mrs. viii, and let her know that she was healing nicely, that everything will be fine, and the best thing that she can do at this point is start to use it again.

Mrs. viii has started walking on her foot again and is now confident that she’ll get better. She’s no longer afraid to use her foot.

Two things to be thankful for today.

1. My youngest daughter returned home safely from her trip to California. She went with her grandparents and a cousin. She had a nice time, but was glad to be home.

2. Mrs. viii is in better spirits this afternoon. She was not doing terribly well earlier today. I called to check on her and she wasn’t sounding very well. I went home, fed her, and talked with her for a little while. I wish that I didn’t have to go to work. I would have stayed home to take better care of her. She’s very understanding about all of this. This evening on the way home from work I stopped at the store and bought her a German chocolate cake. She was so surprised to see it. It made her very happy.

Several weeks ago Mrs. viii went to the podiatrist complaining of foot pain which was caused by what she thought to be a bunion. The doctor took an x-ray and saw that it wasn’t a bunion, but a bone spur, probably from a sports injury 30-35 years ago.

Yesterday I took her to the surgical center to have the bone spur removed.

The surgery was over in after about 30 minutes. The doctor came out and told me that everything went fine.

They took me back to the recovery area to wait for Mrs. viii to wake up. It takes a while for Mrs. viii to wake up from anesthesia, and when she does she has a tendency to be rather incoherent for quite some time, and frequently says and does things that are quite humorous.

I’m grateful that the surgery went well and that she is safely recuperating at home. We go to the doctor for a follow-up visit tomorrow.

It was a fine day. I got some nice gifts from the family. Everyone was here except for my youngest daughter (13 years old). She has gone with my parents and one of her cousins on a trip to California. She called to wish me a happy Father’s Day (at Grandma’s insistance most likely).

My other two daughters (both on their own now) dropped by. My oldest daughter came for dinner and the younger one came later with her husband.

I got a bottle of root beer, some DVDs, a new car stereo, socks, and a Star Trek tee shirt.

I appreciated all of the gifts. Cost was not a factor. It was just nice to have everyone together for a little while.

I’ve always had very good eyes. I could make out details from a long distance off, I could read small print, I could see things in the dark.

That was all a few years ago. A few years ago I started to have trouble reading really fine, fine print. To get around that problem I bought me some reading glasses. The were nothing special. I saw them at Sam’s Club about six years ago. They were the weakest ones there, they only cost like $18 for three pair of them.

I bought them and have been using them to read small print ever since. I had lost the first two pair over the years. I think that I left one pair somewhere down in Arizona. The other pair disappeared somewhere in the building where I work. The third pair mysteriously vanished about two weeks ago.

I have been struggling with reading small print ever since. I can read it, but it just takes a lot longer for me to figure out what it says.

So anyway today my youngest daughter found them. This will simplify my life once again. Now I can once again easily do crossword puzzles, sudoku, and read reports that people hand me at work.

I’m glad to be able to see fine details again.

I received a phone call from a friend yesterday. He is known to be somewhat of a clown, as are many of my friends. He said that he only had a minute to talk, but he wanted to tell me something, all kidding aside.

He said that he was thinking of me and regards me as being someone who is rock-solid and views me as a role model. He said a lot of nice things about me in a very short period of time.

I’m not really sure what triggered him to make the call, or why he said the things that he did. Regardless of the reasoning the call was a real mood elevator for me. I felt very much uplifted to have a friend who would call just to say something like that.

I’m grateful to have friends like this one. I wasn’t in a particularly down-trodden mood when he called, but still

There are two people whom I dread sitting down together in the same room with. They were in town today. They wanted to stop by and “talk”.

These are the same people who were the catalysts that caused all of the ugliness that happend in the single worst meeting in my life…ever...about three months ago.

I my boss and I met with them. We allocated them two hours, as opposed to the three days that they were given last time that they were here.

I must say, things were a little bit smoother this time. We were pleasant, listened, didn’t volunteer much in the way of information, and didn’t agree to do anything for them either.

It went really well. We told them that we would give them two hours only.

Somehow, as the two hour mark approached, some of my faithful employees opened the conference room door and acted as though they had a meeting scheduled in the room for that time slot. I wonder how that happened.

Our guests then said, “Well, it looks like we’d better go”...PRICELESS

I was greatful that we were able to control the subject and tone of the meeting so that it didn’t end up becoming a shouting match like last time. I’m also greatful for my faithful employees who helped to end the meeting at the proper time.