Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
‘Driveway and Dog’
I cannot believe I just threw away 497 words that was a draft post. Totally threw it away, I couldn’t even justify leaving them, (the 497 words), as a ‘strike-through-content-left-on-Post-to-form-launching-point-of-the-actual-Post’, something that I have done in the past.
But enough about me! You’re here because: a) you are a participant in Lizzi’s Ten Things of Thankful bloghop and have decided to read a whole bunch of the ‘other’ Posts or 2) you have stumbled badly in your killing-time-in-the-blogosphere and found yourself at the Wakefield Doctrine. This is our contribution to the TToT bloghop.
In any event. After I threw the 497 words down on the ground, I went back to bed. Lying in bed with Phyllis and Una, the thought occurred to me, ‘hey what about taxonomy?’ Needless to say, I started to get excited! Of course! I’ll break my life (at least the last 7 days of it) into simple categories and, ….and!! use bullet points!!! the thing should write itself!! (it would not hurt to wish me luck at this point. I mean, sure, I finished the Post and all, I know how it all turned out, but you, the Reader does not…know at this point. So before continuing, if you have a moment, think of your Writer, athletic and well toned body standing on a small hill in the middle of a field, yelling and waving, “Hey Readers!! up here!! I think I’ve found the way out!! Come on!!” and without looking back I run down the far side of the hill, heading towards some jungly looking woods in the distance. (Think Wizard of Oz running through the field of poppies or whatever the hell it was and they almost make it to the Emerald City.)
This week, the things that I am grateful for/are, in the following categories:
Work:
- having work, a profession that I enjoy and have done for long enough to acquire the experience that allows me to do what I do competently but not for so long that I am tired of it
- part of my work involves driving in my car, which has always been one of my favorite things, as it is, in a sense, sort of a portable/moving living room… comfortable seat, entertainment from the radio or the scenery as I drive along
- grateful for the difficulties I encounter it the course of doing my job, odd as that may sound.
- I had a former client stop in the office yesterday, I had his house listed last year. We were not able to get it sold and the listing expired. However, he felt comfortable coming to my office because he needed some help with information required to refinance the house and I was, in fact, able to help. I liked the…. I guess I would call it a compliment, or whatever it was that was implied by his coming to me for help, even though it did not involve selling his house.
Home:
- comfortable home, environment is semi-rural which means that when we (the family unit) are at home, there is a degree of privacy which is kinda nice
- that other than one snow storm, the winter has been dry (or at least snow-free)…we have a pretty long driveway (not as long as, say, Christine’s, which from the Posts I read, is crazy long), but longer than any of the other driveways in the neighborhood. I have resisted buying a snow blower so it is all shovel-by-hand whenever we get a storm… wait, let me get a picture!
- technology! that I was able to stop this typing, get my phone and take 6 or 7 photos and email them to myself and use one in this here Post here, how cool is that?
- modern heating systems. We have a wood stove on the lower level of the house, it’s one of those with the glass doors so besides being an additional heat source, it has the aesthetic appeal of a fireplace. The thing is, the amount of work necessary to produce a state of ‘not cold’ in the house using wood as a fuel! no, I am totally grateful for the thermostat-based heating systems
the Virtual World:
- we had the Friday Night Vid Chat last night. I really enjoy this form of social interaction with people. As is often cited in these grat lists (mine and others), I really get off on the fact that I am able to meet people who, without the medium of the internet, I would never, ever have met.
- Cyndi’s Comment/Question/Follow-up-that-provided-it’s-own-answer (see Comments in this Post)
- had some technical talk last night, …grammar!! (god! if my 19 year old self could hear me now! “hey! young clark!! women and the proper use of commas and semi-colons someday that is going to be the high point of your week!”)
- that I am not, in fact, being the least sarcastic in that last item.
there! and without having to invoke a single Secret Rule! (thanks for the reminder, zoe).
Welcome to the newest Co-host, whose identity we managed to un-cover, despite Lizzi’s best effort to keep us all in the dark!*
* a little joke, referring to email thread… ha**
** ha
About clarkscottroger
What? Really?! First Commentator! Alright!
Liked the post today. I also totally enjoyed the vid chat last night. I enjoy meeting new people.
I look forward to coming back later today and going post to post and reading all the wonderful words sitting right now, in cyberspace.
Now? I’m heading to Best Buy to look at phones. (No, not just looking, buying!)
And I’m the second commenter. :) Gadzooks! Shoveling by hand….at least it’s good exercise! Enjoyed the vid chat as usual and thanks for giving us the opportunity to interact.
Michelle
it does seem to get longer each winter! thank you for the ‘you are there’ tours of your city, this (ability) to see far-away places though the live chat is so very cool… you are getting ahead of the rest of us in the vid tour skills
Yes, Michelle. Really like it when you take us on walks…and order noodles in Chinese!
Hey, nice organization style there, Clark – categories for items of thankfulness. I like that.
I hear you about thermostat heating – we don’t have a stove and as much as I think I’d love one I honestly don’t want to work that hard to be warm. But last week DURING THE POLAR VORTEX when our heat decided to quit working in the middle of the night, I was pretty upset. Never more thankful than the next day when we got someone out here fast to solve the problem. Heat is good. Heat that works well and quickly is better.
Thanks for the welcome!
Lisa
thank you like the old saying, “those who can’t, constantly come up with ways to present’ lol
Welcome to the TToT… I may sound like I kid a lot, actually, I do kid a lot, but I am totally serious in my respect and admiration with what Lizzi and the Hostinae have created here… I bet you have a real good time here.
I have lost count how many times I have started to write and then just trash it, so I know the feeling well. And so with you being thankful for one big snow storm so far and that all of it actually melted very quickly. Fingers crossed that we don’t see much more and that damn groundhog predicts an early spring. Hey, I can hope lol! Have a great weekend, Clark :)
Janine
yea, and there actually was a benefit to the ridiculously low temperatures, the snow storm we had was very very dry, which way cuts down on weight. how the hell did we get halfway through January? days are getting longer, too!
Oh my gosh, Clark…I loved the comment : if my 19 year old self could hear me now! ”hey! young clark!! women and the proper use of commas and semi-colons someday that is going to be the high point of your week!” You are too funny, my friend!
Have a fabulous week!
Mrs. R
thank you, but imagine trying to describe weekends to your 19 year old self… such a hugely different world.
Wood stove heat? Yes. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. However, I don’t do anything NEAR the lion’s share of work that husby does to keep the wood flowing…
Oh…uf. That sounds kind of weird. HAHAH.
But still, we’re thinking about going out and BUYING a cord of wood so he doesn’t have to spend so much time….HEATING.
I’m thankful for thermostats, too. As the furnace kicks on…
And that discussion from yesterday? Oh yes. Very good indeedy.
Cyndi
yeah…something involving cartoon logs and those waterside-log thingies you see in the old movies… more to follow on the question of the permanence of the predominant worldview!
Yes, that question. I think we got that covered tonight in the Saturday Night Call In. Thank you Cyndi for calling in:) We retain our predominant worldview in spite of developing the other 2 aspects. Once a clark (for me) always a clark.
The interesting question is, as I grow my scottian and rogerian aspects, will others see/notice a “change”? (I know the answer. Just want to hear it in Doctrine terms)
Young Clark would have been shocked, forsure! But probably also pleased and a little intrigued.
And dude – HUGE compliment from that client. He trusted you.
I like how you did this. It works.
And the asterixes…
clark love them asterixes…and parenthesiseses hah
Cyndi
lol… I don’t know what I would do, (without) the friendly parenthetical sisters!
Lizzi
yeah… not bad (the client compliment), thanks for the thumbs up on yet another attempt to find words that are readable in the real world, by real people.
“…the thought occurred to me, ‘hey what about taxonomy?’ Needless to say, I started to get excited! ”
Before this post do you suppose those words have ever been uttered together in the history of the English language???
I had to write that before I forgot to mention that…Im off to read the rest of what I am sure is a fascinating categorical journey!
Wow thank God you work out by running across that poppy field or else you wouldn’t be able to do that lengthy driveway by hand… that is a long freaking driveway to shovel! I shovel but not that far… I know when to pull out the snow blower… why the resistance? Im sure its some totally admirable Clarkish reason… I love that Una is looking out the window …its a cool shot!
zoe
hey! I just ‘ran the scene’ in my head (the Wizard of Oz) and they got woke up by it snowing! forgot all about that! I have this really strange quirk about shoveling and I totally …enjoy is not strong enough…more akin to ‘feeling a significant satisfaction’ as a result of nearly any shovel related activity.
hey thanks I think Ill build my post around my lifelong physical pleasure that is being steadily diminished by the passage of time and my no longer young physical self (lol yeah, I know clark are not too manipulative)
I adore shoveling and even did it this morning with a fever and the dizzies of low platelets… somehow it made me feel better…I understand what youre saying… I miss my old body for sure.
When I read your “Hey, what about taxonomy!” I read it as taxidermy. It wasn’t until I got to the end of the post, and you didn’t talk about stuffing any animals, that I realized my misread. :)
It seems you live on a lovely piece of property. And while your driveway may not be as long as mine, that sucker of yours has got to be a major headache when it snows.
I liked the way you did your list this week, all organized and such. And I agree with Kris (Mrs. A.R.) That line about your 19 year old self is hilarious.
Christine
lol… I distinctly recall as I read the wikipedia page on taxonomy there are a note on the page: ‘not to be confused with taxidermy’… and I could feel my interest start to drag me off in that direction, but I managed to stay focused. It is a long driveway… I mentioned this in my Reply to zoe, I should check ‘does anyone remember my telling the story about learning as a young big the virtue of shoveling?’ one of the lesser appreciated aspects of writing a lot of Posts is that eventually we forget the stories we have told… oh well
Nice Car! xox jean
jny
thank you… that is Phyllis’s car (the black Honda in the photo)… the care that supports the dashboard that my hat rests on is (in this photo) underneath in the garage.
Brilliant organizational system! Love it! And I hear you about making the people who hire you feel comfortable. Sounds like you’re awful good at your job.
Commas? I love them, but maybe not as much as semi-colons. I have spent much of my career teaching young children how to construct a sentence so I have a great affection (borne of familiarity) with those rules.
Love how you broke it into sections. Work sounds lovely. So does home. We have a wood stove in the lower part of our house. It’s not like a fireplace. Just a wood stove. lol. My boyfriend’s uncle did fix it to where after it gets so warm, there are vents leading to the upstairs in two rooms, so, fans kick on and the heat comes upstairs and it’s heavenly. Keeping the fire going can be tedious but after having wood heat for so long, I freeze to death with electric heat. I am trying to catch up on my 10 things of thankful, but I had to stop by and let you know that I nominated you for The Sunshine Award. If you don’t participate in the whole blog award thing, I completely understand. II usually don’t myself. But this one came at a good time. So, my post is Sunshine and my questions are there. :)
Donetta
Thank you for the Award and I will do my best to respond appropriately and graciously*
* (be ok if I focus on the ‘appropriately’ part? given how the day is starting, I might be a bit behind on the gracious thing)
hey! Donetta!!
where is the place where I go to get my Award!!
As I am reading your list I see that you have a job you like, a home that suits and pleases you, and interaction with some great folks that you enjoy, and I think how many people would love to claim those simple but wonderful things. You are blessed, and you know it, and that awareness that life is good despite all, is the biggest blessing we can count!
Josie
this is very true
12? You did 12 items? 12 normal items? It’s a Christmas miracle! Wait, it’s a New Year’s miracle!
If I had a job where I could drive around in my car all the time, I would be in heaven. I LOVE to drive. I agree with you – it’s kind of like a living room with moving scenery out the window. As long as I have a diet coke with me, I’ll drive and drive.
As much as I loved reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books when I was young, I am no pioneer; therefore, I consider thermostats and modern heating (and cooling) systems to be da bomb.
There’s nothing much sexier than a woman who can use a semi-colon, is there?
ooh baby! grammar talk