September 9

Cops love to hide out in my work parking lot, aiming their speed radars at the passing cars. They are consistently rewarded for their efforts. This evening there was one on a motorcycle as I left work. My registration expired last month and I prayed that he wouldn't notice.

Yeah, right. As I pulled up next to him to make the turn onto the highway, he motioned for me to unroll my window.

"Is your registration expired?" he asked with a grin.

I didn't dare play dumb. I just apologized and said, yes, it was.

"I thought so, I noticed your tags when I pulled into the parking lot. Get that taken care of, okay?"

I'm grateful I didn't get a ticket.

September 8

Brother David's rainbow surprised me on my way home this evening. When I left work for home, the wind was driving the rain in horizontal sheets across the highway. Hunched over the steering wheel, my hands tightly clenched, I worried about hydroplaning.

But not five minutes later, a rainbow suddenly appeared and I pulled over and unrolled my window to see more clearly. The moment was instantly perfect -- the smell of fresh rain, the cries of a killdeer, the saturation of colors, Joseph Arthur singing "In the Sun" on the radio... I didn't want it to end.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm grateful I had to work late on a Friday.

September 7

This morning I had a dream that I left my camera and all of its wonderful accessories on a plane. I wandered from terminal to terminal searching, but I knew it was a hopeless effort. My stomach hurt from the disappointment and I worried about how I was going to tell my family. It was with such relief that I woke and realized it was only a dream!

But then I fell back to sleep again and promptly entered the same dream.

"Ha!" my evil dreaming self said, "You only THOUGHT you were awake, but you were still dreaming! You DID lose your camera, you unreliable fool! NOW what are you going to do about your photographs? I knew we couldn't depend on you to finish out the year."

The first thing I did when the alarm buzzed was search for my camera. I had a real moment of panic when I couldn't find it, but it turned out that Hart had simply moved it from the kitchen table.

Today I'm grateful for that line that separates dreams from reality.

September 6

I'm grateful for time, and hope I have enough of it to finish everything that must be finished by Tuesday (135 hours and 26 minutes from now, not including my watch's 5-minute headstart).

September 5

It has been a long, and sometimes hard struggle, but I'm grateful to see Luke interested in reading and that I get to be the listener instead of the story-teller. He has always been good with comprehension of passages, but his fluency has been a slower process for many years. This year, he is shining and I am proud!

September 4

I'm grateful for the guilty pleasure of staying in bed all day long and simply reading. What a lovely way to spend Labor Day!

September 3

We couldn't pull off the Chilly Roast without the help of all of our friends. I'm grateful to every single one of them, but especially to Lorie, who washed tons of dishes and took charge of decorating the pinata and surprised us with homemade tamales and spiced up the guacamole and the queso perfectly and brought us wonderful gifts made with her own hands. She rocks!