Things that Make Me Happy

In no particular order.

Yesterday we walked with Violet to the Albany Pride Parade.  The Pride Parade always makes me happy.  If you know us, you know we were early.  We invested our time in a side trip to Berben and Wolff’s for a breakfast sandwich to share.  So good!  We’d had breakfast and it wasn’t lunch time, but since I’ve been walking Violet roughly ten miles a day, I don’t hew too closely to the three meals a day rule.  If I am near delicious vegan food, I have some.  Like Saturday.  Again Lacey, Violet and I walked to Lark street, where an art fair was happening.  Berben and Wolff made me a banh mi slider with a crispy, porky ball in the middle.  A special for the fair.  Man.  I’d order that every day for a between meal snack.  They’re getting really creative with their specials.  If you’ve worked through the menu, don’t hesitate to keep going for the off menu items.  B&W makes me so happy!

Back to the parade.  The pre-party is the best part.  The marching is joyous and fun, but walking around saying hi to everyone before that gets underway is when I get the most happy.  I still struggle with the facade of unfriendly that so may here present.  I continue to say hi to most people I pass and the response rate is low.  About one in five responds.  Wears a fellow down.  Attendees and participants in the Pride Parade, on the other hand, are almost all in a terrific mood.  Everyone says hello with bonus small talk thrown in.  Violet gets lots of love, too.  I should pass out the lens cleaning wipes I carry to those whose lenses Violet kisses.  She loves to give kisses and her kisses tend to travel the full length of the face, glasses included.  No one seems to mind.  

My friend’s kid marched with her school band and we watched with another kind of pride as she passed by with her alto sax.  The Hannaford’s grocery group was huge!  Looks like it is a very good place to work.  One marcher shouted just that as he passed.  That doesn’t happen often enough!  I also really liked a soccer league float that included a locker room complete with showers.  Good clean fun.

Violet continues to delight.  Still bumps in the road, but they are decreasing in frequency and intensity.  She’s rock solid reliably sweet when meeting people, kids and dogs, but she’s still hot for squirrels and even hotter for rabbits. Not much of an issue when walking, but when she spots them from inside the house she can get a little intense.  No harm comes of it, but it is the opposite of relaxing to be around.  We are still training sometimes and managing others.  

Beers in the driveway can be tough, though.  If I tie her out with us, she has a lot of territory to scan and it doesn’t take long for her to spot prey.  I need to try keeping her on a short leash.  It will be a bit of a hassle, but it may limit the number of sightings.  P.S. Violet isn’t a junior officer. I just found the sticker on the ground.  They need to be more careful with their badges, don’t you think?

The community garden is going well.  We have a real rabbit problem there, but I haven’t lost everything of any one variety, so I am not sweating it.  Thanks to the rabbits, I won’t have an over abundance anything this season.  People are erecting short fences around their gardens.  I’ve had luck placing two feet high wire surrounds around particular rows, so maybe their short fences will help.  I hope so.  Some have had gardens eaten to the ground more than once.  Not sure why I haven’t been similarly wiped out.  Maybe it is all the volunteer dill and tomatillo plants amongst which the seedlings I plant are hidden.  My garden is really wooly this year.  I am sure to garner a weed warning, but none are weeds.  Just a lot of volunteer fruits and herbs.  I hope the administrators can tell the difference.  

I saved the best for last.  Lacey makes me happiest of all.  She is working too many hours so I don’t see enough of her, but we do our best to soak up the love in the evenings and all weekend long.  She’s making an effort to keep her schedule in check, but it is hard to say no to requests for appointments from people who are hurting.  I hope her clients appreciate the sacrifices she makes for them and, as a result, the sacrifices I make for them!  Violet is good company, but I need my Lacey even more.  At least I have Lacey when I do.  So thankful for that.

I’m going to prepare for a call to close a deal.  It’s been a good year.  A few more deals and I will hit my average yearly revenues.  I wish I could take the rest of the year off, but I have to help with everything my client brings and he isn’t likely to take a sabbatical.  If the year ends up above average, we’ll save a bit more for the future.  It’s all good.

I’ll leave you with a short story that also made me smile.  Leaving the garden today, I spoke with a woman who helps a family from Afghanistan.  They live in a small apartment with mice and roaches, have signficant health problems and barely have enough to eat.  Still, they are the happiest people she knows.  When this woman’s 16 year old son gets on her nerves, she visits the refuge family for a dose of happy.  Why so happy?  No bullets.  No bombs.  That is enough for them.

What makes you happy?