Skip to main content

Ten Things of Thankful: Even When Being Chased Across the Street by a Chicken, or Clobbered by Books!



Photo: A yellow pedestrian crosswalk sign. Pictured on the sign is the typical figure of a person, as well as a figure of a chicken.

I love this sign, because there are multiple ways to interpret it. Perhaps the boy is taking his pet chicken for a walk. Perhaps he is being chased by an angry bird. In any case, he has a designated crosswalk and a nice new sign, to alert drivers to be on the look out for all sorts of two-legged pedestrians. 

Whether you are strolling along with a beloved animal companion or running for your life, there are things to be thankful for. I hope you look for and find them. Here's what I've noticed this week:

1. I'm thankful for that chicken crossing sign. It made me smile. Then I learned that it went up as an Eagle Scout project, and I was even more impressed with the initiative that scout had.

2. I'm thankful that, after all of these years of blogging, I figured out a work-around for those times that I have difficulty transferring my photos from my phone to my laptop: blog from my phone, at least long enough to add the photo to the post! Why I didn't think of that before, I don't know, but I'm glad I was able to find a quick fix.

3. I'm thankful that our fence is now up. I don't believe it is deer-proof, but so far I haven't noticed deer tracks in the snow in the backyard. It looks like they are being lazy and walking around the fence, through the neighbor's yard. This next week is supposed to bring additional snow, so I'll be checking for hoof-prints. 


Photo: An unobtrusive black chain link fence stretches across a part of the mountainside.

Photo: The chain link fence continues on the side of the yard and meets a white vinyl fence in the front.

4. I'm thankful for humor, whether intended, like the chicken sign, or unintended, like this side I saw in a hotel elevator recently:


Photo: A flier which states, in part, "Whichever floor you're on, you'll find our service on another level."
I know the message they meant to give was that their service is a step above what would be expected, but when I read the sign, it made me think of a huge hide-and-seek game. "Nope, our service isn't on this floor! Try again!"

5. Speaking of service, I'm thankful for companies that do go above and beyond. Long story untold, but I'll just say that Enterprise Truck Rental in West Valley City, Utah cares about their customers. 

6. I'm thankful for friends. I had a chance to see old friends last week, and it was good for the soul. 

7. I'm thankful for caring strangers, and (8) for the ability to laugh at ridiculous situations.  This week, I was browsing in a bookstore. When I took a book off the shelf, the one behind it fell to the floor. When I squatted down to pick it up, about a dozen more books fell on my head. Lest you get the wrong mental picture, these were thin, children's picture books. I wasn't hurt in the least, but a concerned customer came rushing over and kept asking me if I was all right. In between fits of laughter, I tried to assure her that I was just fine. 

9. I'm thankful for good storytellers, however those stories are told. This week, John and I attended a showing of Minari at the Sundance Film Festival. We didn't realize at the time we purchased our tickets that Minari would turn out to win both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, but after seeing the film, we aren't surprised. The film is a rather autobiographical account of a Korean family's move from California to rural Arkansas in the 1980's. Go see it if you get a chance. 

After the film, the writer and director, Lee Isaac Chung, participated in a Q & A. He had been wanting to write about his childhood, but he said the script didn't really come together until he followed the advice of Willa Cather: "Life began for me when I ceased to admire and began to remember." As he began to remember little experiences, things began to fall into place. 


Photo: Lee Isaac Chung answers questions about his film, Minari, at Sundance Film Festival

10. I'm thankful for John, and all the little and big experiences we have together.

What about you? What are you thankful for this week?

Joining the party this week:
The Prolific Pulse
MessyMimi's Meanderings
Carin's Gratitude
Time for Reflections
A Season and a Time
The Wakefield Doctrine
Her Headache
MYou are invited to the Inlinkz link party!
Click here to enter

Comments

  1. In the 'like minds' department, I went to the same place on that hotel sign lol
    fence is looking good, is it high enough to discourage jumping? Not that we set up that way, but our fence is only about three and a half feet, the deer like the aerobics when they come into the yard... they do tend to jump (watching them bound into the woods when I let Una outside).
    Have a good week.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OK, answer to comment take two. I know I responded, but I have no idea where my response went. Anyway, I was surprised that sign made it past the marketing department! The fence is about 6 feet high: high enough to (hopefully) discourage jumping, but not high enough to physically prevent a determined deer.

      Delete
  2. Happy no need for cranial CPR! Sounded more like chicken scratchings. 😁🐔Wonder if we followed that chicken if she'd tell why she crossed the road. I've had to use my phone for blog fixing and prefer the laptop. Glad we have the backup of the phone.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I kind of wish I could see what that whole scenario looked like; it really was funny to experience, as the books just kept raining down on me!
      I definitely prefer blogging on the laptop, but am glad I can use the phone in a pinch!

      Delete
  3. The sign in the elevator is hilarious!
    I am glad you were able to figure out how to transfer photos from your phone to your laptop. I have only imported photos from my phone into the computer, never to another device.
    #9 This sounds like such a great film. I hope we get a chance to see it in our area. Was it actually filmed in Arkansas and if so I wonder what area.?
    I love the quote from Willa Cather.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I laughed aloud when I read it!
      The transferring of photos to my laptop is what I usually do; I figured out how to transfer photos into my blog post from my phone this week. Not my favorite way of doing it, but my laptop just wasn't cooperating with my phone, or vice versa--I'm not sure what the problem was, which made trying to fix it tricky.
      Minari was filmed in Oklahoma, but the director filmed in the hilly part, so it would look like Arkansas. He would have liked to film in Arkansas, but Oklahoma had good tax breaks/financial incentives for filming there.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Conversations are so much nicer when more than one person does the talking. :-) Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts; I'd love to hear from you!

Popular posts from this blog

Ten Things of Thankful: Autumn Edition

It's autumn time, one of my favorite times of year.  I just couldn't leave this weekend as a one-post weekend.  

Ten Things of Thankful: Last Two Weeks

  Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park, as viewed from an overlook I apologize for not commenting on your blog posts this past week; John and I took a vacation to Yellowstone National Park, leaving behind our computers and, to a large extent, cell phone service. We escaped the outside world and just spent time in nature. Though we have friends near Yellowstone (who we love to visit) we made this trip just about us, so please forgive us if we were nearby and didn't stop by. The crowds were minimal (though we did mask up whenever we passed someone on the trails) and we spent our days hiking, taking photos, and watching geysers erupt. Today, we are back home and back to work, and, in the case of my computer, back to old shenanigans like not letting me import my photos. (I was able to add the above photo by using blogger on my phone, but that isn't my preferred method.) I want to write about Yellowstone and have photos I want to share, but will leave that for another

Monday Mentions: Equate Crutches

Have you ever needed crutches? I hadn't, until a week ago.  I'm pretty sure I strained a muscle while running a half-marathon.  (That sounds kind of cool, doesn't it? I'm not actually that cool; the last time I strained a muscle it was from carrying too many shopping bags at once.) In any case, I found myself in need of some crutches. I sent my husband to the store to get some. Photo: A pair of crutches leans against a wall  Not that crutches are all that complex, but because I hadn't used any before, I wondered if I could figure out how to adjust them to fit me properly. I shouldn't have worried. John came home from Walmart with their generic store brand of crutches, complete with instructions. First, I needed to take out a long bolt that went through the hand grip. Then I needed to find my height range, push down two metal pieces, and slide the crutches until the little metal pieces came up in the hole near my height range. (Having two people for this