Late! And for a Very Important Date!

Oh rats! I was so proud of myself and now, I've blown my chance of getting finished with 30 Thankful posts during the month of November! If this will pass as an excuse or explanation of why I missed my deadline to get this post written and up before midnight of November 5th, I really only missed it by 38 minutes so that should count for something, don't 'cha think? It was, after all, a very hectic day for me. I had to go vote, of course, and darned near forgot completely about this being Election Day but thankfully, as I was getting ready to leave the house this afternoon, it dawned on me that before I do any of the other things I had on my "to do" list for today, that I'd best move Voting up to the top slot of necessities to perform! And so, I made my way out to the polls and did my thing by filling out the form and pushing that big red VOTE button! After leaving there, my next stop was one I really didn't want to be making but it was one of those things where life calls us to do things that go against our grain and this went against my heart as I had to go to the funeral home to pay my respects to a family whose father had passed away. He and I grew up in the same little town here and I knew of him -knew who he was to see -from the time I was in grade school although he was already in high school by then. But because of the seven year difference in our ages, I didn't really get to know him until the mid-70s, when after he retired from 20 years in the Navy, he and his wife moved back to this area and I got to know him better then because his wife was one of my Avon customers then. (Actually, I knew of his wife way back then too but didn't really get to know her until I wandered into their home with my Avon wares. I was however, good friends with her brother from about 7th or 8th grade on and we still are good friends. After the funeral viewing, I had to stop and get some dog food or else poor Sammy might have withered up and passed away too from sheer starvation. No fears now of that happening as I did pick up two bags of the stuff so we're kind of stocked up now for a while in that department. Then it was time for me to try to find a couple of my Avon customers at home so as to deliver their orders and for a few, it was just to collect as last week, I had just dropped off a coiuple of orders and not collected on them right then, but it was quie imperative that I at least manage to collect enough from the sales this time to be able to pay my bill to the company. (Unfortunately, at this point in time, I'm still shy a good bit of money owed to me for some orders! Oh well, I think I can cover the shortfall, at least for a couple of days anyway! By the time I had done all that, it was time for me to take my Avon bag and stop by my house for a bite to eat -thank goodness I had the foresight yesterday to cook a fairly large macaroni and tomato sauce casserole so I only needed to dish some out on a plate and nuke it and that way I was able to get a bite to eat! About time too because I was starved! By now I only had one more thing to do today before the rest of the evening would be mine to do with as I wished -be it embroidery-work or maybe starting to read a book I purchased last week from one of my favorite places in the whole wide world -good old Barnes and Noble! (A side note here to my daughter, Amanda, though. I saw your Barnes and Noble wish list and sad to say, none of the books you mentioned are among the group of books I ordered last week and I can guarantee you right now that you'll have to work on either your sister or your brother if you want the book on your list that sells for $120 and change. I'm assuming this is not a textbook because if it is, you never mentioned anything about going back to school! My sincerest apology for this too, Mandy!) Hmmmm. Just rambled on growling about Mandy's wish list and plum forgot to mention that after doing all that other stuff I had to go to a meeting tonight at church to finalize our Women's Group's Fall Bazaar which will be taking place at our church social hall on November 23rd. Mark that date on your calendar and plan to attend if you're anywhere near us here in central Pennsylvania. You can come and enjoy a pleasant light lunch of soup, sandwich, homemade applesauce and for dessert, your choice of either gingerbread or a Swedish dish called Grot, but which is actually just some really good Rice Pudding. And we got the meeting done and closed up shop around 9 p.m. which, for me, was not a minute too soon because I was tired, not really feeling quite up to par today as my intestines had begun to give me fits just as I was realy to go to the church meeting. I was tempted to blow it off and not attend but then figured I'd best go and suffer through the whole thing since, after all, I am the current president of our group! So now that I've given a rundown of my day and the good, the bad, the indifferent about it, I suppose you're wondering what the heck about all this stuff has anything to do with being thankful, aren't you? Well, depending on how you break things out of this mini-version of War and Peace, there's a lot there for which I am thankful. I'm thankful that I am part of the Women's Group at our church and for being able to participate in the events we put together every year! (I'll be even more thankful when I come home from The Fall Bazaar on November 23rd with a whole lot of homemade candy I intend to purchase, for some baked goods I know I'll be able to find there, maybe some craft items will catch my eye and there's also a good chance I might be able to purchase some little Swedish memento type item too that will maybe work as a Christmas decoration perhaps. So, yes I'm thankful for all that. I'm thankful too that although I didn't get to all my customers to deliver their orders, there's only two packages left in my "to be delivered" box. More than that though, I'm thankful that I decided to return to selling Avon again, after 22 years of being on a self-imposed hiatus, I guess you'd call it. I do enjoy getting out and having a chance to chat with my customers -many of whom are old friends and former customers from when I sold these products back in the 70s and 80s. I'm thankful that through Avon I have at least a little chance of earning a little extra money to supplement my not so very large social security check. I'm thankful too that a time in my life when no one else will even look at me to hire me, Avon said "Sure, come on back to the fold!" It does give me a chance then too that I can sort of prove to myself -and perhaps to others too -that I am still capable of making some contribution to society! I'm also very thankful today that I remembered to vote and especially for that opportunity to be a part of our government procedures. Some will say, I know, that voting is meaningless and those people who get elected are just a bunch of blowhards and don't know or do diddly squat for us, their constituents, except perhaps raise our taxes. And I confess too that on occasion I have been known to say a lot of those things about our government and its problems. But still and all, at the end of the day, I'm thankful for living here, for this being a democracy and well, in my humble opinion, being the best darned country in the world! And finally (ah, I know -you thought I'd never get there, didn't you?) I give thanks for having had the opportunity to have known one of the nicest guys ever! He was one person I have never heard anyone who knew him say a bad word about. He had a great personality and wit, eyes that twinkled when he saw you although you didn't know always if it was because he liked you and well, was just happy to see you or if it was because he had just thought of a really good joke or trick he could play on you! He once gave me the largest Avon order I've ever had -for 300 necklaces! Yes, 300 of 'em that I sold to him at my own "special" price, knocking of almost all of my profit so he could get this many identical necklaces to give out as gifts at a special awards dinner for which he was the manager! (And, I even spent almost 3 hours of my highly valuable time gift wrapping those little packages for him too! But it was worth it because that one order put me into first place in sales in my district and it took the other reps almost four months for the heavy-hitters in the sales arena to catch up to me and then, to take over the lead! I'm thankful for his decision to buy those items and that it not only helped me but it made him look darned good in the eyes of those women who received those little packages too! Tonight, I'm saying thank you to a good friend for the many, many times your smile, your wit, sense of humor as well as knowledge on a whole lot of things of interest to me too, never failed to bring a smile to my face. Those encounters over the years never failed to lift my spirits and the memories of your ability to do that is something for which I will be thankful that I knew you. Rest in peace, Meddy!