Random Stuff I'm Thankful For (Part 1)

Seems like we just celebrated Thanksgiving about a year ago and here we are again. It’s always good to be reminded that we should be thankful. I know that I do not say thank you enough to enough people. And I do not say thank you enough to God for the abundant blessing upon my life. Since this is a thanksgiving post let me go ahead and list the things that you would expect me to be thankful for: My wife, my kids, my extended family, my health, my job, food and shelter everyday day, great friends, great colleagues, and on and on. I wanted to spend a few minutes here listing some things that I realize I take for granted that I am extremely thankful for. For example:

Zippers – I once had a pair of pants that had buttons instead of a zipper. What a pain. I was thinking this morning how much I take for granted the fact that every day I can zip up my britches. And don’t you just love those plastic bags that are zip lock – instead of trying to line up those thingies that you are supposed to press together. I sure do.

Toilet paper – Here’s a little toilet paper history you probably didn’t know – Joseph Gayetty is widely credited with being the inventor of modern commercially available toilet paper in the United States. It was first introduced in 1857 as Gayetty’s Medicated Paper and was sold in packages of flat sheets, watermarked with the inventor’s name. I’m not EVEN going to comment on that last line. The jokes should jump off the page. I will say this though – if you have ever used bad TP then you can understand why I am thankful for good toilet paper. Now I come from a generation that has by and large always had decent paper to work with. But apparently my pastor has not. A recent reference in a sermon to the Sear’s Catalogue left me with a picture that I would just assume had never gotten into my head. One other thought: Whoever developed 2-ply should be given an award. That single ply stuff is not worth a cr…. Pun intended. (not sure if I can say the word since I’m a pastor)

Electric blankets – I gotta say that I do love climbing into bed at this time of year when the sheets are nice and toasty. Now my wife will tell you that it is her very favorite part of the day. This is because her feet stay at a temperature of 27 degrees. I know this because the first thing she does when she gets in bed is show me how cold her feet are. Every single night. I’ve tried to tell her that I believe her when she tells me how cold her tootsies are but for some reason she feels compelled to prove it to me. So the electric blanket has become a good friend who helps me make it through the cold winters and helps me put up with cold feet. Cold feet I can deal with. So thankful that my wife does not have a cold shoulder.