I think this pretty much sums it up!

[azsnowman]

WOW!!! This gentleman is GREAT, he writes some GREAT columns and then THIS ONE!!

http://www.azcentral.com

You should be thankful for your typical daily grind

Sept. 6, 2005 12:00 AM

It's Tuesday after the long Labor Day weekend and you have to get to work. (You have a job.)

You've spent the past three days relaxing, firing up the barbecue, shopping, taking the kids to a water park, and going to the movies.

(You have a house. A car. Food. Money.)




The alarm clock went off early this morning and you had a difficult time waking up.

(You slept in your own comfortable bed.)

But there are school lunches to be made and you still have to wake up the children and get them into the shower.

(You have running water.)

It's always hectic in the morning and you chide yourself for not having laid out the kids' school clothes last night.

(Your closets are full.)

You hurriedly put together some outfits for them then head to the kitchen, where you put a frying pan on the stove, turn on the burner and pull out a carton of eggs from the refrigerator.

(The electricity and gas are working.)

After you finish making breakfast you decide to take the dog for a quick walk. You pull him along on the leash, trying to get him to hurry, but he stops to sniff each tree and shrub, as well as mailboxes, the tires on the neighbors' cars and every passing jogger.

(The street is free of debris and water. There are no downed power lines or splintered utility poles, no roofing shingles, shattered glass, crumpled vehicles. No bodies.)

After you get back to the house you take your own quick shower, throw on some clothes, pile the kids into the car and head for school. There is a long line of cars dropping off children outside the entrance. Teachers and the school principal are there directing traffic and greeting kids.

While leaving the school parking lot you notice that you're low on gas. A block or so away you pull into a service station crowded with cars. There's a sign saying that the station is out of "regular unleaded." The prices are outrageous, but you figure that it will only go higher, so you fill up. While pumping gas you call the office on your cellphone in order to check messages. You have several appointments. Business associates are trying to get in touch with you. It's going to be such a hectic day that you decide to stop at the local coffee shop on the way in.

When you get back to the car with your latte you notice a bag of laundry in the back seat that you forgot to drop off at the dry cleaners. Maybe you can do that on the way home from work, after you stop at the pharmacy. And then stop at the video store. And you need to drop by the grocery store for some milk, eggs and other things.

(Your school is still standing. The shops and stores that you rely on for your daily life are still standing. The business at which you make a living is still standing. You're still standing.)

You got a stack of bills sitting on the kitchen counter at home. The tires on the car should be replaced. The rug in the TV room is stained. There are weeds in the yard. You don't know if you have enough money saved for college, enough money for retirement. Enough money.

In Catholic school the nuns used to say that bad things happened to people in order to remind the rest of us how good we have it. And that they keep happening because we keep forgetting.

You take a different route to the office in order to avoid the busy area around Veterans Memorial Coliseum, where Hurricane Katrina evacuees are being housed.

Your life is terribly predictable.

(Your life is wonderfully predictable.)

[azskyman]

Indeed it does, Dennis. We take SO much for granted. And we make SO many assumptions about the minutes, hours, days, and years we have ahead of us.

They can be snatched from us in a flash of a moment!

History is the best teacher of all. We learn from the past. We sometimes feel bulletproof to catastrophes like this one. Like no matter how bad it is...we'll wake up a few morning's later to a sunny day.

We learn from these tragedies.

...mostly we have to count each day as a special one.

[simplyme]

http://foamy.libertech.net/kat.swf

Warning - adult language...

[Windy]

[JenBayles]

I like that squirrel better than most people I know.

[artist]

we do take so much for granted.

[cancunkid]

and the squirrel was saying things I have been saying. I was tempted to slow it down and see if I had been bugged!

[oneness]

That’s one clear-headed squirrel right there, and remarkably articulate.