Paying It Forward

It's time to celebrate!!  The coughing has almost gone away.  I spent very little time yesterday bent over coughing my brains out.  Let's hope there's enough left that they will regrow.  I did find that I didn't cough nearly as much when there was a peanut butter cookie in my mouth.  I made the sacrifice and looky here ... I'm BETTER!!

Better enough anyway that I made the long trek out to my mailbox because someone suggested that was a good idea.  It was worth every step.  I wasn't too sure when I saw the envelope from Kenneth, especially since I don't know any Kenneths first hand.  Wasn't I surprised to find this cute Easter card from my childhood school friend Frances.  You surprised me girlfriend ... and I thank you so very much!  This is so thoughtful ... hardly anyone sends cards any more.  AND remember she sent me a case of coffee???????

And then I found this .... this one said Barb and Jim.  What goes around really does come back in spades.  I received these gift cards in return for the quilt and fox pelt.  I wasn't expecting anything at all.  It just goes to show you there really are wonderful people left in the world.  You three friends MADE MY DAY!!  

You had me at Red Lobster!!  See the word HABIT on the right?  That's English for Habit Burger, which just happens to be my all time favorite burger joint and lives just down the road a few miles.  What a coincidence ... I'll be driving right by it because I'm headed to the metal fabrication place in town to fix Jonathan's travel cage.

I thought if I could get these little legs cut off, the cage would fit under the cabinet in the RV.  Surely a metal fabrication shop would have something to chop them off.  I went inside to find two huge burly men sitting there ... kind of scary at first glance.  

I explained my problem.  He said that will be $1,000.  YIKES!!!  Good thing he was laughing!  He said sure ... and sent his guy outside to do the cutting.  I offered to pay whatever he wanted because I appreciated the fact he said yes.  He told me no charge .... told me to pay it forward the next chance I got.  I told him he was a scholar and a gentleman ... and I would definitely do that.

Next stop ... you know where ... Habit Burger!!!  I think I was over the moon for the guy at the fabrication shop and my brain skipped a gear.  Habit has changed their menu ... and the salads looked SO good ... on the sign anyway.  I chose badly!!

This is a Santa Barbara cob salad.  I'm not sure where the cob went, but it had lots of blue cheese, which never touches my lips EVER!!  Well this was a big mistake!!  

Deciding this was a good place to pass it on, I tipped the very young girl with a mouthful of braces $10 for her fast smiling service.  She said I didn't know how much she needed this.  Okay then ... eating the tiny pieces of blue cheese that I could NOT pick out of the salad was worth it.  

On the way back home, there was a guy picking up bottles and cans from behind all the buildings.  He had three big bags hanging on his bicycle.  There's a guy who is maybe down on his luck, but he's sure working hard for all those plastic bottles.  

I stopped him ... said someone just did something very nice for me, so I'm passing it on ... paying it forward.  Here's $20.00.  You won't believe what he said ... I'm good, but I know someone who could really use it.  DONE.

So ... with the taste of blue cheese finally OUT of my mouth, I drug this very heavy cage out to the RV, praying it would fit under the cabinet.  I had a quarter inch to spare.  I wish it was a little smaller ... it takes up quite a bit of my counter space, but Jonathan will appreciate having a little more room.

It even matches the decor!  Hah!!  And he can scream in my ear very nicely!!

Finally back inside with only intermittent coughing, I spotted two of these in the Habit Burger bag.  What the heck?  Okay, I get it.  It's supposed to look like a burger.  Turns out it's a gummy bear type of thing.  I popped it in my mouth ... and popped it right back out into the garbage can.  Who feeds this stuff to their kids?  It tasted terrible and was like chewing on a piece of rubber.  I'd rather have blue cheese!!

And so ended a very nice day of not coughing too much, eating lots of peanut butter cookies, feeling warm and fuzzy from the mail pickup and VERY thankful for friends and the nice people at metal fabrication businesses.  It doesn't get any better than that!!!