CarlSullenberger.com

Counting My Blessings
Looking back over 2006 I see that on a personal level it was a mixed bag of good and bad, like most every year. I’ll recount a much as my limited memory allows to se which way the scales tip.
I’m ecstatic that I’m retired and that the check arrives every month, usually on time. However, I’m feeling the delayed effects of 30 years on concrete. There is now not a single joint or muscle that doesn’t ache. I have to be primed like a pump in the morning with enough coffee to float an aircraft carrier. It hurts to sit, stand, or move too long. I take as many naps as possible every day.
Nothing major failed or blew up in the house. We just had the ordinary sparking light switches, leaky basement, and endless burned out bulbs, all manageable. I can’t say the same for the beater.
The 1996 Probe developed a habit of getting bulky every fall. It would run like half the cylinders weren’t firing and needed begging to start. I’ve taken to the dealership only to be told for $70 bucks that there’s nothing wrong. Sure enough, a few days later the old beast smoothes out and runs like a purse-snatcher in Central Park.
This year the Black Jelly Bean, as my wife calls it, is eating parts. I’m running out of guesses as to what else I can replace short of the entire car.
I’m one of the few people of a certain age, about 20 years from dead, who doesn’t have to take a single prescription medication. No Lipitor or Xanax for me. I’m not even on aspirin.
On the other hand, I do self-medicate. I have to or people will be hurt, by me. I have a store of comfort food: multi-meat pizza, pizza rolls. Pizza, in any form, when taken with rum and diet Pepsi keeps one calm, sedate, and pliable. Being calm, sedate, and pliable makes for a happy wife. Well, as happy as any woman can be when she’s married to someone not a millionaire, handsome, and/or potent.
I finally have a respectable array of photographic equipment. Nikon will be sending me a “thanks for putting another Lexus in our garage” Christmas card. The only catches are I need to figure out what all those buttons, bells, and menu items do on the new camera, and I still have to pay for it.
As for the first catch, every time I pick up the new camera or lens I find another switch. I have to go back to the stack of manuals to see what it does and then figure out whether I can use it. I’ve never had to read the manual for anything before, but then I never owned a tool that looks like it was created by the same people who design the cockpit consoles of 747s.
About the second catch, Santa was very nice to me this year, but his generosity is leavened by the fact that he’s giving me the bill, too. It’s a good thing those retirement checks are regular.
A super plus is I’m doing something as a vocation that I truly enjoy. Photojournalism is a blast and I look forward to every assignment.
A monstrous minus is I’m still doing all those I hate. Mowing the lawn, cleaning house, putting up with relatives, and driving in any city with stoplights.
A real blessing is my grandchildren are happy and healthy. They are also both a lot smarter than I am having figured out exactly how to manipulate me. With the four-year-old it’s understandable that he’d have noticed that grandpa is the easiest target. I’d rather say, “yes” than see him sad. I could have sworn I was a tough guy and I’m pretty certain I refused my sons. It must be oldvage.
I don’t get where the 9-month-old granddaughter picked up on Papa as the resident sap. If she wants held or needs to make a poopoo on someone, she makes a beeline for me. For the first 6 months of her life, I thought baby girls were supposed to smell like barnyards. It turns out it was just her way of saying, “I like you.”
Well, I guess my life isn’t so bad, which is bad because it’s the source of many a column. So, how do I rate my happiness scale? It’s a good things those checks come on time.