Positive Thoughts

I have been a little negative this past week here in my blog so I thought I might tell of some of the positive things in my life:

• A couple of years back, we bought a Manufactured home near us to fix up for Dave and his wife, Barb. We took out a home improvement loan and this past month, Barb paid off the final note. That returned us to the list of debt free. It also puts Dave in a home that is paid off. Bonus!


• We have finally worked ourselves into a place in our lives that we feel free to travel when and where we so desire. Yes, the 10 day rule still applies to me. After about a week and a half I begin to get out of sorts and start missing the naps on my couch. My underwear count is about 14 and socks about 12 pair so it not a shortage of linen. I am pretty sure that there is enough warm and cold weather stuff in the closet for more than 2 weeks either way. It just has to be the disruption of my regular scheduled naps. Or, all the excitement of travel. Yep, travel overload... has to be.


• In the spring and summer, my love of smoked meats overpowers me and I feel the need to get out and fire up the grill. The supply of hickory here is pretty much self sustaining and a good hickory smoke fire just makes everything so tasty. Today's lunch will be steak and chicken cooked yesterday and re-heated. With some good old Garlic Mashed Potatoes, it will be a great dinner. Barb will see to some green vegetables and rolls. Good stuff. I think that smoked meats are better the second day after the flavor of the hickory has had a chance to infuse all the meat not just the outside.


• Both of us seem to be having a pretty good run of health. There have been a couple of minor things the Dermatologist has removed but so far we have gotten to them before they got to me.


• In the spring, Kansas (at least here in the northeastern part) turns green and it won't be long before the garden starts providing us with a harvest of good things to eat. To whet our appetites, the Asparagus starts sticking up new stalks and I love them. Barb like to get out and walk around the place and she likes to discover new edible things so it works out well. New asparagus stalks go well in about everything. We use them in omelets and yesterday I made some couscous that was dynamite with the addition of some smoked chicken and asparagus.


• About the time I start to feel too old to be fun, Kyler and Austen come over with Dave and Barb Jr. Those two guys have a way to bring out the best in me and to liven up the place. Today they will get their Easter baskets with sports clothes and sweets. Their laughter and glee will make it fun for the short time they are here. It also gives me a good chance to sharpen up my cooking skills and they seem to like most of what I like.


• I don't claim to have a photographic memory by any stretch, but yesterday I found one of the renter's checks we had misplaced. It got thrown out with all the junk mail in the mailbox when we got home. The good news was that I hadn't hauled that trash can out to the court on Friday as it didn't have much in it. I got to make a better system to keep that from happening.

See, in spite of the overload of negative things here lately, a lot of positive things are happening. To add to all of that, Barb and the dog both seem to like me.

MUD