I (finally) assembled the kitties new scratching post, with a little help from a friend. Walter and Mimi weren’t clear on what it is right away. The circled it, sniffed it, and walked away. Fortunately, by the next day they were both scratching on it. Alas, a little late to save my wicker chairs. You might notice the top of the post–the picture in the instructions showed a wider berth, wide enough for a cat to sit on. Clearly what we have is too small for that. But overall we’re happy!
Today something happened that stopped me in my tracks. I was waiting for my pharmacy to open, and noticed that the pharmacy tech had reached for a prescription right before opening the window. Turns out it was my prescription. He knew who I was.
Now, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. I’ve been going to that pharmacy for several years and this particular tech had helped me numerous times. But I don’t have that many prescriptions, so it’s not like I’m there every week.
I guess I always feel anonymous. Why should anyone remember me? In this case, I typically go to the pharmacy, give them my name and date of birth, and they give me the prescription. It’s a brief transaction and there’s never been anything memorable about it, like having to call the doctor’s office or me getting upset because something went wrong (nothing ever goes wrong, and I wouldn’t get upset if it did).
So I don’t expect to be remembered. But it’s things like this simple gesture that keep me going back. Simple human kindness. I doubt the young man helping me had any idea how good it made me feel that he remembered me. In fact, he’d probably be surprised that I was surprised.
It makes me more keenly aware of what a difference a simple smile or common courtesy when you’re shopping can make. People like to be respected. In our day-to-day lives, how often do we go out of our way to make those we see all the time feel special?
There’s a woman at work who says things like, “Belinda knows what she’s doing” or “you can count on Belinda” and that always makes me feel so good. I try to remember to do the same for others, but I don’t think I’m as good about it as she is.
As the old commercial jingle goes, “life’s simple pleasures are the best.” Let’s give out a few simple pleasures this week.
Okay, the picture is kind of crooked, sorry about that! Walter was watching the pre-game stuff so intently I thought I might be able to get a picture of him watching the actual game, but he only sat still through the national anthem. After that he’d move every time I picked up my phone to take a picture. But he was watching football, honest! I’m sure he was rooting for the Chiefs, who lost to Dallas the day I took this picture.
My friend Deb has also been a good friend to my cats. In fact, most of their current toys came from her. A few years ago she gave me this “cat quilt,” which, as you might guess, is a quilt with cats on it. I put it on the back of my wicker chair, where Walter pulls it down and either hides under it (which is really cute, but I can never get a picture) or sleeps on top of it. Here he is doing the latter. Okay, he woke up when I approached with the camera, but i promise you, he had been sleeping on his blankie.
You can also see that, despite having actual scratching posts, the cats love to tear up my wicker chairs. Oh well. That’s the price you pay, I guess, for having cats.
I hope you’re able to enjoy the holiday, whether it means spending time with family or spending time by yourself. I’ll be doing the latter, and then working on Friday, which doesn’t sound like much of a holiday, I guess, but I plan to relax, watch some football, then pull out my “start of the holiday season” movie, The Man Who Came to Dinner.
Maybe I’ll set up my little Christmas tree, too. I haven’t done that in recent years, but it might be worth the effort this year. The cats love it, until they pull it down on top of themselves. Once for each of them is enough.
And of course, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade! Woo-hoo! I always enjoy that.
My World With Words 
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