22 degrees…. Today was 22˚C.

What. A. Pleasant. Break. … after last weeks time spent in the oven!

Today’s little something was something that I’d been hoping for, but as days went on, I wasn’t sure it would happen.

Well… the first thing to be grateful for is…

I survived yesterday.

Feels like I’m only half joking really. I seriously do not handle that kind of heat well at all. I slept downstairs on the couch because upstairs was just sweltering. Even at that… no sheets or blankets over top of me … no can do. Just the white noise of the fan above my head, going full blazes.

Today was a tough day.

Temperatures reached 41˚C (106˚F) by about 6pm, and even at that… by midnight, it was still hovering around 31˚C (88˚F).

I’m a raised-by-the-east-coast boy were 27˚ was an average summer, and 31˚ was the odd heat-spike kind of day.

Today’s little bit of gratitude came in a pint-sized package.

Arriving a few weeks earlier than we’d originally expected, he didn’t come out fully baked so-to-speak.

He’s long since made up for it though and now stands tall, carries a big stick and is a source of pride.

OK today’s little gratitude trigger is unique.

…and it come straight from the country where the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Romania came together today to support a European neighbour:

Ukraine…

Today’s source of gratitude isn’t unlike Day 6, but it’s sort of specific.

Indirectly… this story dates back to 1991.
But directly, it’s not quite that old.

I was going to say roughly 2007, but I checked and it was July 8, 2006.

Today’s source of gratitude is going to seem a bit strange…

It’s a combination of:

– one word I find incredibly difficult to say, and

– something I find incredibly difficult to share.

Ouf! It’s been a while since I’ve had a day like today.

It seems like everything aligned quite nicely, leading to a feeling of real satisfaction & progress…

…but I get ahead of myself…

On June 6, 2005… I fell in love.

I’d been married for 8 years… so it wasn’t that kind of love.

I was traveling in France with my friend Ryan Shepherd, and visiting with my friend Sylvain Marolle… so it wasn’t a friendship love. It was a bit more mundane… but love nonetheless.

Today started out with a box full of bees in the trunk. Although it sounds a little more fun when you say it in British English… because you get the repetition of three “B”s as opposed to just two:

“Today started out with a box full of bees in the boot.”