I’m inspired by the large amount of “Say What You Need To Says” that have come in to our website. Being Thanksgiving time, here are some not so oridinary things I’m thankful for:

Being able to smell. Love the coffee aisle in the grocery store!
Dogs noses going up in the air when they catch a wiff of something.
Ice cold beer on a hot, sweaty day.
Lyle Lovett.
I’m thankful for easy video conferencing. To see my daughter on the east coast that way.
Smokehouse almonds.
My sense of humor. My wife’s. My friends’. Yours.

Maybe in 6 months, we should do the opposite. Have an Un-Thanksgiving Day. We could throw turkey bones at people and things we’re NOT thankful for. What are you doing on May 26th?

The weekend was just for us. Me and my Ro.

A nice  hike in the snow up by Mt. Baker. Let the dogs romp without worry of MY dog would geting stupid with people. We slept in Sunday. Did some lazy’ing.

BUT..what happened with my pot roast?!
I was sure I’d prepared it perfectly. Veggies. Some onion soup mix.  And slow cooked in the crock pot for six+ hours. The roast appeared to be tender when I put it into the cooker. But..dang it all. It was mostly tough and chewy.

I was excited to be a good hubby. Make her a nice meal. Smellin’ up the house after a day of us off trapsin’ around.

What’s the secret? I thought it was supposed to be fool-proof. (Ken proof?!)

I’m proud to have been part of the crowd of people to welcome home Army Spc. Aaron Aamot.

Like Aaron, I also didn’t know the people that surrounded me. It didn’t matter. We all had the same thing in common. We wanted to pay our respects and offer a thank you to the young man we didn’t know. It didn’t require knowing those people, like it didn’t require knowing Aaron, to be proud of them..and most certainly of him.

We stood there on the Slater Road overpass waiting for a sight that I’m not sure we were totally prepared to see. As we waited in the chilly sunshine, we made small talk. Some laughter filled the air from time to time.

However, not a word was spoken when the motorcade approached and proceeded under us. It was awe inspiring from that vantage point. A long, proud, patriotic..and sad gathering for a fallen hero.

Not one person moved away from their “station’ for the duration of the motorcade.

And there was not a dry eye on that overpass when it was done.

I’m thankful for young Aaron Aamot’s service. I’m grateful for people like him who put themselves on the line. And I’m glad to have been there with others who shared the same feelings I have.

Ken

I’m ashamed to admit that it took untill my 40’s for me to really grasp it, and to be very grateful to our service people.

I wasn’t contrary to thankfulness. I wasn’t mean or disrespectful by any stretch. It took being in a relationship with an active duty Air Force woman. Ro and I started dating and almost immediately were separated by her deployment - my first time dealing with it. Then again she was deployed when we were newly married.

I’m a baby. We were separated for only 4 months or so, each time. A fraction of the time many, many others have to face. And yet the four month deployments were difficult. I missed her GREATLY. I love Ro for so many reasons. One of them is her sense of duty and the way in which she served with determination and her respect for the Air Force.

And for the first time, I had a new, closer understanding of what it is to men and women to sacrifice their “regular” lives and give tremendously of their selves.

So, to the men and women of the armed services, AND to their families, thank you very much. Not just on this Veterans Day, but on EVERY DAY OF YOUR LIVES.

I spent a good part of my Sunday (remember how gorgeous it was?) on some used tin. Plugging holes with caulk. Lots of holes. I didn’t want water damage on our stuff in our newly constructed storage shed.

It rained yesterday (Monday). I was happy about it so I could see what my results would be.

This score just in:
     Ken Richards    01
     Mother Nature  00

Ro and I are moving.

Bright side of it: I’ll be closer to work. New landlord is very responsive.
Bummer side of  it: Packing up the boxes. And having Ro question why in the world I’d still have this sweater after so long?  AND..moving away from some really cool neighbors we just recently started hanging out with.

Oh well. While others are having fun with trick-or-treating, and having fun at Halloween parties ..Ro and I will be straining muscles, bruising knuckles and grunting loudly. Hey wait. Isnt’ that just a normal Saturday night?

I can smell again! I CAN SMELL THINGS!!!

 For the last several years, I’ve lost my sense of smell. TOTAL LOSS. Ro and I were riding the motorcycle one day when she started exclaiming something. The stench. Stronger. “Skunk”!! Just as she said it, we passed over the carcass. I couldn’t smell a thing.

What a difference some REAL help can make. Thank you Dr. Anderson (Asthma & Allergy Center of Whatcom County).

 Within days of diagnosing some inflamed membranes and nasal polyps, I’m now able to smell! (Just several days of a steroid and a medicinal nasal spray.) Not to mention, I’m now able to breath through both nostrils!

Favorite smells so far:

1. my wife’s hair
2. coffee
3. my wife’s perfume or anything else she wears
4. garlic
5. wood smoke

Stinky things I like smelling:

1. cow pasture (quickly driving by)
2. urinal cakes
3. the odor of the building I’ve been working in, but had no idea it DID smell a specific way
4. my dog
5. burning
13.  skunk

What about you? You’ve probably been smelling things all this time. Have you a favoirte good smell? Or a bad smell you wanna’ admit to liking?

I’m just thankful today.

I’m thankful I have a fulfilling life.
Thankful that my daughter is visiting (from too far away).
Thankful my other daughter lives here in Bellingham.
I’m thankful I have a wonderful woman who loves me, and who I get to love!
I’m thankful to be working. And working at a GREAT place!

I’m thankful I get to meet all kinds of people. Thankful to be laughing a little more recently. I’m thankful I saw a guy reading a book..while RIDING HIS BIKE?! Thankful to be in all this beauty of the Pacific Northwest.

I’m thankful to be breathing.

What about you? What are you thankful for?

Ro and I were loading groceries and stuff into the back of the truck the other night. The Wal-mart parking lot was full.

A 20′ish woman comes up to us. Let’s call her Sheryl. She was clearly embarrassed. (Or was she?) She’d locked her keys in the car. Had only $60.00 on her, and needed only $6.00 more for the locksmith to get her into her car.

I’ve locked my keys in the car before. Easy enough to do.

Ro mentions she should get a magnetic hide-a-key. Sheryl, without hesitation, replies that her Ford key is too long for the boxes. (Or is it?) And being my wonderful wife, Ro proceeds to tell Sheryl that I work for KAFE  and that she should listen to the station. So there we are. The 3 of us. Chatting. I even queiried Sheryl about this being a ploy. She pointed to her car. (The one I couldn’t see because it was wayyyy over there, in the dark.)

I felt bad for Sheryl. She’d locked herself out of her car. She was in need of a quick, small amount of cash.

Ro and I gave her the money.

Sheryl disappeared to her car that was over by the Taco Bell.

As we finished the offloading of the rest of the food and goods, my mind starting admiring the scam. If that’s what it was. I admired the creativity and/or the self-congratulatory fact that Ro and I were kind people.

* * Dark, busy parking lot.
* * We were halfway through putting groceries away. Not likely that we would just ‘up and follow’ her to confirm her story.
* * She needed a specific amount. A ‘panhandler’ says “can you spare some change”?
* * She just made 6 bucks. WOW! If she could repeat 3-4 times an hour, she’s making up to $24.00 an hour!
* * She could stay in that parking lot all night, for numerous nights in a row to ‘mine’ the available kind people like me and Ro. (We don’t go shopping every night. More like once a week.)

So..did we get scammed? Or did we just ‘help’ someone?

Okay. The other day, I admitted it on the air that I nearly put my Jeep in the ditch. While driving, I may or may not have been using a texting device. At the last minute, I was able to save myself a lot of pain and heartache by NOT going into the 3 foot deep drainage ditch. I HAVE NOT since, and WILL NOT text while driving ever again. 

 So, today..I’m driving from home to my wonderful job here at KAFE. I see a nothing-short-of-spectacular sunrise coming on over the Twin Sisters casting a wonderful pink glow on the front of Mt. Baker. I’m NOT going to miss it.

 I exit the freeway. Find a place to view it. Free from lots of traffic. I call my buddy  (incidentally, the one I alledgedly was texting) to tell him about the beautiful sunrise. Mike took some great shots of that majestic mountain in the same place I was about to park. I thought I’d rub it in that I was seeing something he couldn’t see in the fogged in Spokane.

Maybe that’s it. I was doing a “nyeh nyeh”,  and I was about to be paid back. While talking to him on the phone (this time, I don’t mind telling you, it was on my blue-tooth hands free devise)… I WENT INTO THE DITCH ! ! ! ! !

 Well dang. Undaunted..I stepped out to watch what I set out to see. Mt Baker was gorgeous. The line of the Cascades is amazing. People would pay good money to see what I was seeing. Except for the few harried county-ites who were driving past me at that corner..oblivious to the miracle before them. And oblvious to the fact that my Jeep was resting on only 2 opposing wheels.

To the young guy who was the only one to stop and ask, I thank you. It was a very simple tug and I was free.

 Richer for the experience.