Yoo 572 - I'm Thankful...Anesthetics

Day Thirty:

I'm thankful for anesthetics. This is a true story. There are things like shirts that button-up in the back that are dumb and make me question why we make life difficult for ourselves. And then there are the various forms of anesthetics.

I have had my feet cut open 3 times and my jaw "forcefully maneuvered" into a better place. While this is a short surgical resume and I'm not wanting it to get any longer, it's so super-dee-duper-dee nice to NOT FEEL any of it. Well, until recovery.

Anesthetics are awesome.

I have no pictures for anesthetics so instead, here's my wingspan.

And Roscoe.

And now I'm done. I've made it and with only about two-thirds of the days cheated and post-dated :-)

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 571 - I'm Thankful...Air Shows And Everything

Day Twenty-Nine:

I'm thankful for air shows and the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels and that moment when you see an F-18 or an F-16 flying right at you. You see it but you don't hear it. Then, as it jets past, it consumes you. That bone-rattling roar that clenches your fists into a champion pose and pulls a guttural "WHOA-HO-HOOOOOOOOOOO!" from your person.

Jet engines are sooooo cool. They make me giddy. I want to play with them.

And I love air shows. All these budget cuts are cramping my yearly air show style. It's been cancelled twice now!

Also, the space shuttle. Because nothing compares to a space shuttle launch.

I remember when the space shuttles were active...

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 570 - I'm Thankful...Detasseling

Day Twenty-Eight:

I'm thankful for detasseling. Without it, we wouldn't have our super species hybridized seed corn and the world would probably just stop existing. And by world I mean Nebraska. But luckily, we have detasseling AND therefore our super species hybridized seed corn. And Nebraska.

Read the wikipedia article on detasseling and ignore the part where it talks about riding thru the corn field on a detasseling carrier. The detasseling carrier is a ploy to trick kids into signing up, build false hope, and cruelly motivate those in the depths of despair and on the brink of heat-stroke-exhaustion-foot-blistered-corn-rashed death.

"Alright kids, we only have 500 more blocks (that's 2,000 rows of corn...) to complete on this field and then we just have one more field left today! I just called down to farmer Joe and he says there might even be carriers!"

There are never carriers. The idea of carriers sucks. And the field supervisor sucks.

BUT. Nevertheless, detasseling IS a rite of passage. And I did it for at least 3 summers. And I earned money and have tons of stories to tell. And both of my eyes...I was always afraid of slicing my eyes on a corn leaf.

So now, when I'm an old grandma, I can sit the grand kids down and talk about my days in the corn fields of Nebraska, earning $6.25 an hour while braving knee-deep feedlot runoff and fighting thru pivots blasting water with fire-hydrant force. All in the name of super species hybridized seed corn. And Nebraska.

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Have a great day :-)

Yoo 569 - I'm Thankful...Gummy Vitamins

Day Twenty-Seven:

I'm thankful for gummy vitamins. Not that I firmly believe they're adding years of youthful radiance to my life or anything, but they're delicious. And there's a chance that my body might even absorb a milligram or two of useful substances. And maybe they're actually doing more harm than good but I don't exactly feel like they're killing me yet so they still win on tasty.

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Also, nothing teaches self-control like practicing a serving size of TWO gummy bears per day.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 567 - I'm Thankful...Rolls vs Roles

Day Twenty-Six:

I'm thankful I can finally make it thru classes at church without thinking of rolls every time someone mentions the role. Years of my childhood were tainted with this confusion!

Teacher: "I'm going to pass around the role, make sure you mark off your name."

Teagan: "Did she really bring rolls?? Rolls sound really good right now..."

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Ok, so I still think of them. But I at least know the difference and don't get my hopes up for rolls. Though I'm sure that would increase Sunday School attendance....

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 565 - I'm Thankful...Fire

Day Twenty-Five:

I'm thankful for fire...when it's wanted...because fire is awesome.

Especially that one day I slipped on a log and fell into a creek while backpacking in an unexpected early fall snowstorm in Oregon with Katie. We were at least 20 mountainous miles from the car and I was freezing and unable to dry in the wintry conditions.

It took about 15 attempts and continuous prayerful pleas ascending to the heavens but we were able to start a fire. All my clothes dried, hypothermia was averted, and my hiking boots were melted just so. That was an accident but it almost serves as a constant reminder to not fall in creeks. Or set my boots too close to the fire. Both important life lessons.

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FIRE.

If any kids are reading this, don't play with matches unless you're an adult and your name is Teagan.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 564 - I'm Thankful...Hibernation

Day Twenty-Four:

I'm thankful that animals like bears and woodchucks and bats get to hibernate. While I generally envy them and fight the urge to enter a light hibernationy state when the temperatures cool and the days shorten, I can be happy for them and their reclusive winter plans.

Plus, wouldn't they all starve and die if they couldn't hibernate? That would eventually crawl up the food chain and kill us all.

Yay for hibernation!

P.S. - Human hibernation?

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 563 - I'm Thankful...Tire Spikes

Day Twenty-Three:

I'm thankful I've never backed up on tire spikes. And that the opportunity doesn't present itself that often.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 562 - I'm Thankful...Falling Chandeliers

Day Twenty-Two:

I'm thankful that chandeliers and other related light fixtures have never fallen on me. I whack my head on the one in my dining room on a regular basis, but the wounds are superficial and emotional instead of lethal.

Also, think of how many lights and ceiling fans you've ever walked under. And that everyone walks under. They have a lot of potential energy yet a pretty high safety rate going for them.

^^ are you feeling dangerous? ^^

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 561 - I'm Thankful...Toilet Sprinkles

Day Twenty-One

I'm thankful some toilets get it right and don't flush with such force that they leave the seat generously dusted with "sprinkles". 

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 560 - I'm Thankful...Towels

Day Twenty:

I'm thankful for towels and that I don't have to run around air drying every morning.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 558 - I'm Thankful...Belly Buttons

Day Nineteen:

I'm thankful belly buttons don't leak. And that you don't have to worry about your innards spurting out when you sneeze or something.

This is where I skip the picture of the belly button because I think they look weird and sometimes gross.

But here's a link to a really cool documentary: Finding Traction.

The trailer's good and then it ends with her crying for just 5 minutes of sleep.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 556 - I'm Thankful...Magnetic Feet

Day Eighteen:

I'm thankful that feet aren't magnetic. As Greg pointed out this morning while we were wandering around San Francisco, it'd be quite troublesome if the manhole covers stuck to your foot as you walked along. 

Or anything really. Can you imagine trying to keep your feet as far away from the refrigerator while leaning in to grab your cheese?

Granted, I'm sure there would be plenty of awesome with magnetic feet and technology would have overcome the drawbacks by now, but at least it's a hurdle we've never had to clear, right?

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 554 - I'm Thankful...Turkey Vultures

Day Seventeen:

I'm thankful turkey vultures haven't risen to power and staked out a claim on all our dead.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 553 - I'm Thankful...Toilet Paper

Day Sixteen:

I'm thankful that toilet paper is the mainstream method for bum-cleansing and not bidets. Or pine cones. Even when the toilet paper is more closely related to sand than cotton, I still think it's preferable.

And ANYTHING is better than just using your hand...

Related:  did you know there's a travel bidet? It's called the SQUIRT. Hehe.

For further enlightenment: the wikipedia article on toilet paper.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 552 - I'm Thankful...Orcs

Day Fifteen:

I'm thankful Orcs don't actually exist here and now.

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Have a great day :-)

Yoo 551 - I'm thankful...Frozen Pole

Day Fourteen:

I'm thankful it only took me 6 different tries to prove the theory to my 7, 8, 9, and 10-year-old self that licking metal objects in freezing conditions does in fact create an inseparable bond between said metal object and the fleshy surfaces of my tongue.

Well, it's separable, but not without a painful loss. 

In the past 15-or-so years I have at least graduated to less physically torturous self-inflicted scientific trials like testing just how many times I need to lock myself out of the house before I learn that keys are not optional. 

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 550 - I'm Thankful...PVC Pipe

Day Thirteen:

I'm thankful I've never been curious enough to stick my finger into a random PVC pipe protruding out of a shower wall in a hotel. And then realize that finger is STUCK stuck and have to call for help with little more than a wash cloth within reach to cover myself. 

Cause something like that really has potential to mar self-esteem for the rest of your life. 

Luckily it's never happened to me...

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 548 - I'm Thankful...Snake Cake

Day Twelve:

I'M THANKFUL THIS WAS NEVER MY BIRTHDAY CAKE.

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There is little that could have traumatized my childhood more. Also, I feel as though my relationship with cake is permanently scarred, having just seen this.

AND I'LL BE EVEN MORE THANKFUL IF IT'S NEVER MY BIRTHDAY CAKE.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 547 - I'm Thankful...Boiling Pools

Day Eleven:

I'm thankful that swimming pools and bath tubs and other bodies of water don't usually spontaneously boil like that one scene in Dante's Peak. If you haven't seen it, these teenagers are skinny dipping in a hot springs located near a volcano. Unfortunately this volcano is planning on erupting violently in the very near future and one of the precursory events is this natural pool immediately boiling. With them in it. I had to watch it for science in probably 7th grade (because it teaches ALL about volcanoes, duh) and I still fear that happening.

But thankfully it hasn't yet.

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Have a great day :-)