17

Eventually I will write a history of Seymour, my lovable loyal cat who died at the age of 16 last week. I'm not ready to do so yet. But it will come. I will say that it was clever of him to pass away on the very day of the bicentennial of the births of Darwin and Lincoln.

In lieu of the Seymour obit, I could write a screed on how bad my past week has been - beginning with Seymour's hospitalization and death, continuing with the bad prognosis for my mostly reliable Honda CR-V (not as bad as it could be but $600 is a lot of money), continuing with my horrific food poisoning episode that lasted pretty much from midnight to midnight on Valentine's Day (at least I didn't have to cancel any plans that night), moving on to my post-poisoning lethargy that has not yet passed, continuing with my discovery of a flat tire on my parked car last night in the rain (unrelated to the earlier auto woes, this will cost another $100. But I won't write that screed even if I just did. Instead, to lift my (and your) spirits, here are 17 things (in the order that I thought of them) to be thankful for this February 17th:

1. The pretzel bread at Corner Bakery
2. Acid Tongue by Jenny Lewis
3. Fog
4. Deep deep sleep
5. Light sleep
6. Four months of basketball season
7. Lily
8. Blueberries
9. Elvis Costello
10. Spike Lee
11. That I wasn't driving when I got the flat tire
12. That I was alone at home when the food poisoning hit
13. Hulu
14. Friends
15. My iPhone
16. Flight of the Conchords
17. Oceans

Finally, another photo:

This is me in 1993. I'm on the left. That particular haircut never looked better than it does in this photo taken during my friend Patrick's wedding (he's next to me) which took place the month Seymour was born.