For whatever reason, I feel like I should post before the month and the year end. Just why I should think that, I can't say though there are a few weird little acts of kindness that I feel I should mark. In truth, I meant to post one of these weeks ago but, well, life intervened in its not very interesting but still time-consuming way.
Some weeks ago I'd had A Day at work and Scott wasn't feeling particularly lively either so I ordered pizza because, by god, sometimes that's just what you have to do. It's relatively rare for me to actually order--or pay for--the pizza, but this was one of those occasions. It was, therefore, quite a surprise to find that Pagliacci's decided I deserved to get my pizza for free:
It was a damned fine pizza, too, though oddly heavy on the garlic.
Fast forward a few weeks and I walked up the hill in the snow (though not the ice--that day I stayed home like a sensible person) to mail some packages and stock up on bird seed. I had a coupon for $10 off a $50 purchase at Junction True Value and, given the current price of bird seed, it seemed an ideal time to use it. Sadly, my ability with math seems to have slipped a bit with age, and it turned out my total purchase was just under $50. The clerk, without missing a beat, quickly invented a $.02 item in my basket to get me to the $50 threshold, thus saving me $9.98. Which just struck me as darned nice of her.
And sure, these two little incidents are very slight and don't do a damned thing to redress the ills of the world, but I call them islands of niceness and I'm taking them. I truly despise and hate the expression "pay it forward," but I will keep these in mind when I'm feeling particularly cranky with my fellow Seattleites because sometimes people are nice for no damned reason and that's a good thing and worth remembering.
Also nice:
the varied thrush that chose to hang out in our yard in the aftermath of the ice storm:
this year's cookie box:
Scott working on his latest so-excellent novel:
and, of course, Grace, once more posing under the tree:
Happy New Year, you old Building and Loan!