Things That Make Life Worth Living

As I was cutting up our weekly purchase of a dozen bagels so that we could freeze them, I realized how much I loved having a bagel slicer (or as Amazon calls it, a bagel guillotine). We’ve only had it for about a year, but now I can’t remember how we were able to live without it.

So that made me start thinking about other things that bring joy to my life. In hindsight, it’s probably a somewhat pathetic list, there are no works of fine art, no designer piece of furniture, no piece of antique pottery. It’s things like, well, a bagel slicer.

(Note, this is strictly about things, not people…)

So here we go:

At the top of my list, it’s got to be my iPhone 7 Plus. Really, is there anything more amazing than a smartphone? At the touch of a button, I can check my blog stats, read my email, check my blog stats, watch a video, check my blog stats, listen to music, check my blog stats…

After the iPhone, there’s no particular order to the items that follow.

Heart rate monitor. Every time I do my cardio workout, I’m wearing this around my chest, and constantly checking my heart rate on, you guessed it, my iPhone.

 

Concept 2 rowing machine. Just like Jimmy Buffett’s Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays live album, those are the three days a week I use my rowing machine (currently in what used to be our dining room).

Life Fitness recumbent stationary bike: This is what I use on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Just like my teaching schedule.

Vitamix Blender: typically used every day, except Sunday, for making my 64-ounce green smoothie. Here’s my current recipe: 4 bananas, a heart of romaine lettuce, two large handfuls of spinach, two large handfuls of kale, a cup or so of strawberries, a cup or so of blueberries, a tablespoon of chia seed, a scoop of vegan protein powder, and about 24 ounces of water. Yummy to the tummy.

Macbook Air. I’m using it right now to write this blog. It’s also what I use for all of my work needs. It’s a 2012 model, but it works great.

French Drain. We had a French Drain put in our basement about six years ago because of all the water problems we had over the years. Our only regret was that it was not the first thing we did when we moved into our house 32 years ago.

Water cooler. I use it at least once every day as part of my smoothie, and if I was more mindful about it, I would use it a few more times as well. Water from Deer Park.

Standalone freezer. Given all the fruit I consume as part of my smoothie habit, it has been great having a separate full-size stand-up freezer in our garage, right off our kitchen.

Toyota Matrix. I bought my 2006 Matrix about five years ago, and it already had 130,000 miles on it. It now has over 200,000 and it still looks great and runs great.

FIOS Internet. We have the 1-gigabit service. Not sure if we really need it, but I do appreciate the speed and reliability.

TI-89 Titanium calculator. I don’t use it every day, but when it’s time to do math, nothing beats it for homework and tests.

WordPress and Bluehost. Can’t imagine blogging without using WordPress for helping to create and manage all of my content and Bluehost as my hosting site.

GoogleMaps. My favorite app. For long car trips, and short ones as well. Plus public transit and walking. Not to mention just random street view browsing.

There’s a couple of other things that I use, but I don’t think I would include them in the list above.

The first would be my Kindle Fire, which I like quite a bit, but I’ve discovered that I’m just as happy to read a book on my iPhone.

So while the Kindle is fading away a bit, my Apple Watch is moving up in value. Even though I wear it every day, at this point I wouldn’t consider it essential like the things listed above.

So as I said these are pretty mundane objects, but I’m happy that they are a part of my life.