{"id":3788,"date":"2016-03-30T19:08:41","date_gmt":"2016-03-31T01:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/?p=3788"},"modified":"2016-03-30T19:08:41","modified_gmt":"2016-03-31T01:08:41","slug":"what-more-could-i-ask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/2016\/03\/30\/what-more-could-i-ask\/","title":{"rendered":"What More Could I Ask?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was my birthday.<\/p>\n

At 5:30 in the morning, the fair and industrious Trudy rolled over and asked if I was ready. I was not. You see, I have been mortally exhausted night after night for weeks, and that early in the morning, all I could muster was a pathetic mumble (without even opening my eyes).<\/p>\n

An hour later, she could stand it no longer and turned on the bright lights of our rejuvenated bedroom, and she held an envelope in front of my face. It was a card with a dog and cat on the cover and a folded piece of paper inside. I read the cards and her gentle words and then unfolded the paper. And there was an 8×10 photo of my beautiful wife smiling from a seated position in a kayak\u2026 a bright red kayak\u2026 my birthday present. Oh my gosh. What more could I ask?<\/em><\/p>\n

Wait. There is also a paddle on the way \u2014 a Werner paddle. Oh, what more could I ask?<\/em><\/p>\n

But wait.\u00a0A letter had arrived in the mail from the Great White North the day before. It contained birthday and anniversary greetings and a generous contribution to the house rejuvenation fund that we have drained over the last six months. What more could I ask?<\/em><\/p>\n

But wait, there was more. That evening, Trudy and Ben took me out to eat. I got to pick the place \u2014 Threadgills<\/a>. You see, my sense of taste has been returning, and savory foods have been tasting\u2026 oh so savory. So there we were, staring at a menu of comfort foods. With great relish and anticipation I ordered chicken-fried chicken and mashed potatoes and cream gravy and corn off-the-cob. And then I ordered seconds on the mashed potatoes. And then I ordered a slice of strawberry-rhubarb pie. And then I ordered it \u00e0 la mode. What more could I ask?<\/em><\/p>\n

But wait, there is more. This afternoon I get home, and a box is waiting for me. \u201cGet a grip!\u201d it says on a note at the top, and when I look further, there is a box of clamps. I mean, like a box of many, many clamps. Because\u2026 well, you know, you can never have too many clamps. What more could I ask?<\/em><\/p>\n

But wait, there is still more. I come into the study and sit down, and there\u2019s an ecard from a friend from years ago. A green field against a blue sky with white, airy dandelion seeds blowing in a gentle breeze and rising into the air and then flapping away as white birds on the wing.<\/p>\n

And there were also other greetings from afar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I tell you, I will not ask for anything more,\u00a0for these will all last me a very long time.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was my birthday. At 5:30 in the morning, the fair and industrious Trudy rolled over and asked if I was ready. I was not. You see, I have been mortally exhausted night after night for weeks, and that early in the morning, all I could muster was a pathetic mumble (without even opening my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3788"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3788"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3789,"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3788\/revisions\/3789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}