Thursday, November 24, 2011

Gratitude

 
Rat-tastic greetings to you on this most squeaktacular of American holidays, Thanksgiving Day, in which we paws for a moment, feast on fowl flesh, and express gratitude for who and what we hold dear.
 
Thanksgiving is a special time when many of us enumerate the things for which we are appreciative, and while, as my list from last year points out, I’m still very grateful that I’m not the turkey and Fluffy the Cat has not been invited to the feast, I’d like to add to it. So I present to you now Bob the Rat’s 2011 Top 10 Things for Which I Am Thankful:
 
1. That I am the original author of “keep it squeak.”
2. That, despite this, I remain a humble rat.
3. Cheese.
4. My human and rodent families.
5. You!
6. Cheese.
7. This hovel in cyberspace where I scratch out my thoughts.
8. Our connectedness thanks to the World Wide Web (even though I’m not fond of spiders).
9. Cheese.
10. Melty mozzarella, succulent Swiss … oh, the glory of cheese.
 
Wherever you find yourself this Thanksgiving Day, I hope you’re surrounded by the love of family and friends and have copious access to both turkey and cheese. No matter what, though, be sure to have an attitude of gratitude, and always remember to keep it squeak!
 
Keepin’ it squeak likewise,
Bob

Sunday, November 6, 2011

The Paws of Time

 
Today marks the end of Daylight Saving Time here in the U.S., and in this morning’s small hours all of us set our clocks back 60 minutes. I always feel a little bleu around this time of year, not because I’m sad, but because with the pawliday season coming up I know that there will be plenty of parties, and lots of you humans bring cheese platters. (So the spelling of “bleu” above, of course, indicates one of my favorite types of moldy cheese.)
 
It’s also a time, however, when, for one brief moment, we get to do things all over again. For most people this hour is spent sleeping – and I’m rat-tastically all in for sleep! Others spend it awake catching up on work or whatever else might be on their plate (mmm … I hope it’s some of that bleu cheese I just squeaked about), but I look at it a bit more philosophically, as a time in which we can paws and rewind and perhaps do a bit of introspection. Rather than wait until Thanksgiving, in which we paws to give thanks, and the New Year, wherein we make resolutions, the switch to Standard Time for me is a reminder to look back and make sure I’m scuttling along the path of life that I should go, and that my ratty actions reflect such: things should be that I wouldn’t harm a fly. (Harming a flea, however, is a different matter; itchy little buggers.)
 
So as we wind back our clocks I encourage you to do the same with your life, because soon enough we’ll be springing forward into DST again, and time will pass us by.
 
Keepin’ it squeak,
Bob