My Redacted Life: Blessings and praise ...

The weather was warming and I was making progress restoring my health. About that time, two wonderful things happened. I like to kid my little pal, but she is a wonder. Also, I don’t think we appreciate our blessings. My life manifested both in 1975.

It happened this way.

I had reached the one-mile mark on the little 30-lap track at the YMCA. The second mile proved easier. I was breathing easy after 60 laps of jogging. Then a couple of wonderful things happened. First, I’ve always been a believer in the advice I heard once that we should give thanks for the blessings we are about to receive each day. I don’t ascribe it to religion, just life. It’s a lot easier to change the way we look at what happens to us, than it is to change the things that happen to us. So why not just give thanks in advance for a wonderful life?

One morning, I arrived early at the gym to hear the sounds of construction. At the front desk, I asked Ersel what was happening.

“Construction on the second floor,” he said. “We’re putting in a new gym and track. You’ll have to jog outdoors for a few days.”

“What kind of improvements?”

A new gym with new equipment and …?

“And?”

“A new running track with banked turns at the ends.”

“Same as the old?”

“No. Sixteen laps to the mile.”

Oh goodness. What a blessing.

For a couple of weeks, I ran outdoors. It was coming on spring so I didn’t mind. In fact, I ran without a shirt and started a tan, the first time in years I wouldn’t have been embarrassed to do that. Then the other thing happened.

We had been working on the Victorian cottage and I had taken a day off regular work to do manual labor. We had pulled a flat bed farm truck into the drive and I was loading stuff onto it with my shirt off when my Little Pal drove by, staring like she had just seen Sean Connery. She went around to the alley and parked. Then she went into the house and came out soon after in work clothes.

“Hell's bells,” she said. That was the way she talked back then. “I didn’t think you were here. I thought that was someone else working there. I didn’t even recognize you. Have you lost weight?" She grinned. "You look kinda sexy, all sweaty and everything."

Was there ever a more beautiful thing uttered by a Trophy Wife?

"It is kinda hot," I said, stepping forward.

"Get your ass back to work," she said. That's the way she talked back then.

La Jefa