The Mandelbear's Musings

This weekend I'm grateful for...

• A roof over my head.
• Good food to eat.
• Gainful employment, so I can afford to keep the above.
• A half-hour commute by bus into downtown Seattle.
• Colleen, both my kids, and my sister of choice, all living within easy driving distance.
• Democrats retaining control of the White House and Senate.
• Seattle.
• A mild climate with both rain and sunlight. The sun just came out, which I am going to take as a good omen.

Hmm. Been a couple of weeks, I think. Anyway. I'm thankful for:

• Friends. Friends help you move...
• Good friends. Good friends help you move bodies help you triage and pack things before you move.
• My coach at Lee Hecht Harrison.
• Boxes.
• Getting started on the office.
• Inkjet printers and card stock.
• Nibbles.

... so, today I'm thankful for:

1. Colleen and her sense of adventure
2. Friends
3. Pensions
4. Medicare
5. The compensations of getting old
6. "Every silver lining has a cloud around it"

Today (and it's still Thursday in this timezone! Yay!) I am thankful for...

• Things that could have been much, much worse not being nearly that bad.
• Good walking weather.
• Joints that hardly hurt at all this week.
• Free software that Just Works.
• Colleen and her mad fabric skilz.
• My health, which could also be a lot worse than it is.

Today I'm grateful for...

• Love and forgiveness
• Not screwing up too badly
• Nailing "Kitchen Heroes" when it counted
• Talis
• Naomi
• Colleen
• That amazing collection of geeks called The Filk Community

It would have made more sense if I'd actually posted this last night when I wrote it, wouldn't it?

It's a day late, but... I'm thankful for:

• Friends who care about me enough to call me on my bullshit.
• Being willing to listen, and fix my mistakes if possible, when they do.
• The scientific method, which is basically exactly that.
• Naomi and Colleen, who have been just that kind of friend when I needed it, more times than I like to think.
• Having been turned down by someone I'm now glad not to have gotten more deeply involved with.

So, today I'm thankful for...

1. Already being mostly clear of the latest debacle on LJ.
2. An operating system with a wide choice of desktop user interfaces.
3. Friends.
4. Family, and especially having my Wolfling back at home for the holidays.
5. Medical and vision-care insurance.
6. Snell's Law.
7. Omega-3 fatty acids.
8. The Winter Solstice.

Oops! Anyway, I'm thankful for...

• First steps back from dark places.
• A sense of humor, even if I still don't use it as much as I ought to.
• Blue cheese and apples.
• Open source VoIP software.
• The ability to write well and persuasively (though it remains to be seen just how persuasive that was).
• Praise from people who know what they're talking about.
• Whimsy.

Um... looks like I missed last week, too. Oops! So, thanks for...

• Colleen's increasing independence. The improvement has been gradual, but when I look back at last year and two years ago it's amazing.
• Feeling better about myself.
• Connecting with old friends at Orycon, and making new ones.
• Getting a few things done off my to.do list.
• My UPSs.

And in the morning! What's the world coming to? Anyway, I'm thankful for...

1. My bandmates, Callie and Naomi.
2. My wolfling daughter.
3. Colleen's persistance in clawing her way back to independence, with a little help from Horatio the cane.
4. tetralizard
5. An employer that gives a damn about people and the environment.
6. People willing to put themselves on the line for what they believe in.

So, today I'm thankful for...

• A collection of body parts that, while clearly old, shabby, and poorly maintained, are nevertheless reasonably functional.
• My wise, wonderful sister of choice.
• A distant daughter who loves us and misses us enough to want to come home for Christmas.
• Lids that fit our frying pans well enough to put out a grease fire.
• Colleen, and her continuing improvement.
• CAD audio, and a chance to use some of my audio skills at work.
• AAA

Hmm. Today I am thankful for...

• Colleen. And recovery, even if it's slow.
• Averted disasters.
• A room in the con hotel when we needed it.
• My daughters, and especially Chaos, who helped make our weekend in Seattle a huge success.
• Music, and dear friends who help me make it.
• Compassion. Including some for myself -- that's the hardest one.

So... today I'm thankful for:

• Whimsy and sensible nonsense.
• People who aren't afraid to whap me upside the head when I'm being an idiot.
• Wonderful coworkers, old and new.
• Finally being back in (R&D, and an office with a door).
• Diets that help with chronic diseases, even if they mostly suck.
• Snuggle.

So... Today I'm thankful for:

• Naproxen sodium and methocarbamol. Oh, and ethanol.
• Friends who are good at real-time scheduling.
• Friends who help (the two sets are not mutually exclusive).
• Auto mechanics. And quantum mechanics, but I only put that in because it's the fundamental structure of the universe and I wouldn't be here without it.
• Colleen getting her cast off.
• An airport close enough to drive to in 15 minutes. Which I need to do, like, now.

I have something to add to my Thankful Thursday post, or more specifically two people. I'm very grateful to...

• Liz and Og, for their help around the house...
• ... and especially Liz (tetralizard), for being Colleen's "Old Lady's Companion" on more occasions than I can count, or adequately thank her for.

Thank you.

So, a little late, but... Today I am thankful for:

• The unintentinal humor of other people's cluelessness.
• Coping skills, when I remember to use them.
• A bonus and raise, however small, coming at a good time.
• Friends.
• Sick people (of all ages) getting better.
• Better living through chemistry.

Close.

• Good Drugs.
• Our trusty, if slightly decrepit, transport chair.
• Free WiFi.
• Books.
• Health insurance.
• Linux, ssh, and git

On the day, for the second week in a row. It's not much, but I'll take what I can get. Today I'm thankful for...

• Colleen, and her having the strength, coordination, and sheer guts to start walking with a cane.
• Chamois, or Chami as she wants me to spell it now.
• The original chamois in my life, my sister of choice pocketnaomi.
• Large-curd cottage cheese, which is especially good with a packet of crushed red pepper left over from Wednesday's pizza.
• Cold, dead fish.
• A mention in the Pegasus brainstorming poll.
• An interesting and reasonably well-paying job.
• Water. Also wine and gin, but water isn't just for drinking.

It's been several months since I last did a "Thankful Thursday" -- or any day -- post, and even longer since I was doing them semi-regularly.

So, these days I'm thankful for...

• A sense of humor that's sufficiently wacked-out that I can find amusement in major inconvenience, minor havoc, and my own lapses of memory.
• Good Drugs, likewise.
• My moderately-good health, that gets me through "that kind of day".
• Colleen.
• My sister of choice, and her fiancée. And how good it feels to be referred to as a brother-in-law of choice.
• Whimsy, and the useful side of nonsense and fantasy.
• git, ssh, audacity, and emacs.

So, definitely a day and season for gratitude. I'm going to name names.

• Colleen, and her slowly but surely improving health. Also her optimism, love, and stubborn belief that I'm better than I usually think I am.
• My family-of-birth and family-of-choice. Mom, still going strong and turning 90 next month. My brother Al and his kids and grandkids (who I need to get closer to, but that's another post). My daughters, Kat and Emmy, and Kat's husband Selkit. Sister-of-choice Naomi, her kids, and sister-in-law-of-choice Callie. Sister-of-choice-in-law Marty, and niece-of-choice Kaylee. Decoding the notation for extended relationships is left as an exercise for the reader.
• Friends, too numerous to mention here. If you're reading this, you count.
• Our house, Grand Central Starport, and the crazy bunch of people who come to our parties and Wednesday night open house.
• Conventions. Most especially Baycon, our home convention, and their invitation to Colleen and me to be fan guests this year.
• The filk community, filk cons, and the wonderful people I've been privileged to make music with over the years.
• Tempered Glass, and my music partners Naomi and Callie. Their continuing willingness to put up with me, and to challenge me.
• Computers, and open-source software, especially Linux, audacity, emacs, perl, and make. The wonderful Internet, that lets me stay in touch with friends no matter where they are in the world.
• Moore's law.
• Modern medicine, and the continuing employment that makes it financially feasible. Kaiser, Sameer Awsare, Susan Rothman, Catherine Reed, Renee Faahs, aspirin, citalopram, bifocals, my SAD light,...
• My job; the smart, fun people I work with; the cool products we work on; and an employer, Ricoh, that actually gives a damn about their impact on the environment and the communities around them.
• Coffee, dark chocolate, brown basmati rice, eggs, tofu, fish, bacon, ginger, garlic, blackberries, our rosemary bush, Kyocera and Kershaw knives, our gas stove,...
• Books, far too numerous to mention.

Today I'm thankful for:

• Grocery stores with fresh fish on sale.
• Good Drugs.
• Family of choice.
• Friends.
• Full spectrum lighting and blue LEDs.
• The git distributed version control system.

Thursday already? OK then. Today I'm thankful for...

• The fact that I actually enjoy reading other people's code, even in languages I'm not all that familiar with.
• Not to mention the fact that I seem to be pretty good at it.
• Good weather, when I can get it.
• Broccoli, cauliflower, and other tasty fractals.
• Friends. All of you.
• Promising solutions to a tricky problem. One of them might even work.
• Coffee, computers, and song. And chocolate.

So, yesterday was Wishful Wednesday, and I forgot to post my Caregiver's Wishlist. Here you go.

And if somebody were to make one or two of these fall into my lap, I wouldn't object. And good jobs and good health for all my friends.

Meanwhile, there are things to be thankful for:

• Colleen, who still lets me go on weekend excursions without her.
• Debian's packaging tools, most notably git-buildpackage, which is awesome. Also confusing and sketchily documented. But awesome.
• Work. I still haz it, while too many of my friends don't. See wishes.

Hey, it's closer to Thursday than I was last week. Anyway, today I'm thankful for...

• Colleen.
• Tweezers. Benzocaine.
• Smart, fun coworkers. Not to mention having coworkers at all.
• Good Drugs, and a new doctor who appears to understand some of my problems better than anyone else so far.
• Close friends.
• A washing machine and drier in the house.

Thanks this week to...

• themangoavenger
• The authors of dropbear and dd-wrt.
• The San Jose Fire Department's paramedic team.
• Good friends, good company, good kids.
• Colleen.