Thankful Thursday. Feeling the Burn.

It’s that time again. It’s time to stop and be thankful. I am actually thankful most of the time. Yes I (Mr. Happy) even get down sometimes and forget to be thankful but for the most part I am usually happy and thankful. But it is nice to stop and list the things I am thankful at least once a week so here goes my Thankful Thursday list.

I am thankful for another great night of spinning. It was an awesome class last night and I felt the burn in my legs as I pushed myself to a new limit. The instructor; Mary, did a thing she called “Stairway to Heaven.” What we did was start out at a good pace while seated. Then about every 10 seconds we turned up the resistance until we got to a level where we could no longer pedal from a sitting position. Then we had to stand and continue to pedal while increasing the resistance to the max. After about a minute of that, we slowly decreased the resistance while increasing the speed. I don’t know about you but that doesn’t sound like Heaven.

I am thankful for my coffee this morning. I have been awake since about 1 last night but it is my own fault. After last night’s spinning class I got a fruit smoothie that they sell at the gym. It was mango, guava and banana with a few vitamins and some protein powder thrown in. It was really yummy. I forgot to mention that I was going to bed soon so they must have thrown in some go-go juice as well. About 1 this morning, my eyes popped open and I was wide awake. I felt like that little dog in “Go Dog Go” who was the only one awake in bed. I fell asleep briefly around 4 but woke again at 4:30 and decided to just get up. Hence the need for extra coffee this morning.

I am thankful for being able to hold my tongue and not lash out when someone does something like this:

When I stopped for coffee, I decided to get a few doughnuts to bring in for my co-workers. It is something that a few of us do from time to time. (4 out of the 80 people who work here do it, the rest just eat the doughnuts and complain about the varieties) Anywhooo, I got the doughnuts and coffee and then stood in line to pay. When I got to the counter, with the dozen size box of doughnuts, the cashier asked how many doughnuts I had. I was puzzled by the question since the box said a dozen on it but I told him that I indeed had a dozen. After ringing up the items, the total came up to 8.01. I handed him a 10 and began searching my pocket for a penny.

I know I had some change out in the car but there was a long line behind me so I decided not to go for it.

I told him I didn’t have a penny so he began counting out 99 cents. As he handed me the money and I am struggling to pick up the doughnuts and coffee I notice that behind my coffee cup was one of those “leave a penny, take a penny” cups with several pennies in it. It threw me off because I wondered why he didn’t just give me two dollars back and take a penny out of that cup. While I was thinking he abruptly said Have a nice day. I was still struggling and hesitated for a moment and he said again in a really gruff voice this time; HAVE A NICE DAY. I really wanted to say something back but instead I just said; “you too.”

I am again thankful for little blessings like more free firewood, little reminders to be thankful and great blogger buddies like you all. Give yourselves a pat on the back for being so great. No really do it. If anyone sees you doing it, just say that Greg said to do it and you deserve it. That should throw them for a loop.

I am thankful for great kids who are out doing chores while I write this. Along with the chores at our house they are helping my brother in law with some things around his house. He is the one who had lung cancer and he can’t handle the heat very well. So my boys have been helping him with a few things like mowing his two acre yard and trimming and removing some branches that fell recently. And I am also thankful for my wife who took the time to raise them properly and instill these values in them. She is also planning on cleaning her brother’s pool and getting it in shape to swim in again. Everyone seems to be having pool problems this year. It must be the global warming.

Have a great day,
Greg