Curmudgeonly Monday?

It’s Monday the thirteenth today. if that doesn’t make one cross and irritable I don’t know what will. Well, actually, to tell the truth, as of this writing, I am not really feeling particularly cross or cantankerous. I guess I could be, if I tried harder, but, why bother? I have a lot to be thankful for (so maybe I should have saved this post for Thankful Thursday or Silver-Lining Saturday) in this life. I have a lot that people in other places only dream about. I live in a nice warm house, heated by two brand new furnaces (when we refinanced last year we were able to have the two sixty-year-old furnaces replaced and our gas bill went down), I have food to eat (our pantry was well-stocked and we have not had to worry about the stores being out of things.), clothes on my back, a nice cowboy hat for my head and a nice pair of cowboy boots for my feet.

I have a great family. I’ll be married forty years this June. I used to make a joke and say that I must be doing something wrong though because it’s all been to the same woman. I noticed that joke made people who have had multiple marriages uncomfortable so I don’t use it as much as I used to. I have a bunch of kids and grandkids that I love and am very proud of. No, I don’t really have any favorites because each one is incredibly unique from all the rest and I like the whole lot of them, both biological and adopted.

Now, a thing happened to me today. I learned a couple of things. First, I was over at Bruce’s blog, Weave a Web, which is an interesting assortment of somewhat eccentric esoterica. His music and poems are quite good but his stories are…well, let’s say that oft-times, but not always, his stories leave his characters in a lurch. Think O. Henry in a negative universe. I usually enjoy them as much as I enjoy O. Henry and they frequently elicit a comment from me but I cannot promise that you will like them all. As with any link that leaves my site, it should be obvious that I have no control over their content, but in the same breath, the fact that I mentioned him and provided a link may mean something.

Oh, sorry, I lost track of where I was. What I learned there was a new phrase, “as sure as eggs is eggs.” I had never heard it before today. The Google wasn’t really too helpful, either. It’s supposedly a derivation of, “as sure as X is X,” but that knowledge wasn’t really what I wanted to know either. I was interested in the etymology of the phrase. (I know that etymology is the history of a word, not a phrase, but I don’t know the word for that If there is one.) Anyway, I didn’t find out much other than it’s apparently British English. It was starting to bug me so much that I almost went looking for the entymology of it, but that would have been just silly. Aside from that, sure as eggs, I learned a new phrase today.

The other thing I learned, but I don’t know if it counts as learning since I kind of already knew it, so maybe I was just reminded of, is that contented cows give more and better milk. Since I was feeling so content I decided to go looking for a picture of contentment and remembered the advertisement about milk from contented cows. As I was going about looking, I discovered an article by a veterinarian that said, “…British scientists concluded that bovines who were given names, spoken to affectionately, and treated with kindness, produced as much as 68 more gallons of milk annually than animals who hadn’t been socialized to humans…” That fits with what I remember from living on my uncle’s dairy farm for a while. When you go approach the cow, whether you are using a milking machine or doing it by hand, you come from the side and say the cow’s name and let them know what time it is. “Okay, Mathilda, it’s time for milking.” They have also discovered that music being played in the barn is soothing as well.

The bottom line of all this is, I have a lot to be happy about and content with. Oh, I could get worked up about not being able to get to see everybody or politics or a bunch of other things, but I just ain’t feelin’ it. I feel blessed and content and happy and thankful, so I apologize. I’m sorry that I’m not feeling grouchy or cantankerous or ill-tempered. At least not today. We’ll see how I’m doing by next Monday.

Remember, The Good Book says:

Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

(Philippians 4:11-13 KJV)