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A Boy, a Dog, a Loving Companion, and a Sauna
Lately on Ricochet, we’ve had a few posts and comments about gratitude. I came across this photo of my son Alan, my dog Bob, and Marie my loving companion, and that photo reminded me of what I should be grateful for.
I have a sore on my foot, and Marie orders me to the couch each morning and tells me to put my foot in her lap. From there she kills the germs in an open crack with hydrogen peroxide, then seals the crack with New-Skin, and finally softens it all up with foot cream. She finishes up by massaging my feet and lower legs.
Now that is what I call a loving wife. We’ve been married for 59 years, and I thank the gods, whoever they might be, for sending Marie my way.
I’m also thankful for my son Alan, a sweet boy with a mellow personality. I’m afraid I had very little to do with the formation of those traits. While I was away teaching and drinking coffee and reading in my office, Marie was doing the harder job at home raising our two children, Alan and Annie. We’re very proud of both of them and grateful that they turned out so well. Annie became a funeral director, and Alan became the manager of a private plasma company.
And of course, I’m thankful for Bob the Dog. In my dotage, I talk to myself a lot. Sometimes Marie comes into the room when I’m talking to myself. I tell her that I’m talking to Bob (which I actually do a lot). Bob and I are best buds. I laugh at him at least twenty times a day, and he probably laughs at me.
So there you are. Bob the faithful companion, Alan the mellow son, and Marie the loving wife. What more can a man ask for? To answer that, I need to move to an inanimate thing. Yesterday, Marie and I put together and installed a sauna (see below) in our main bathroom. I already know that I love saunas. When the gym was still open, I would bask in their sauna after every workout. Now I can just take a few steps from the bedroom and step into my own sauna.
By the way, most saunas today heat the body with “far-infrared rays.” These far-infrared rays penetrate the skin much deeper than normal heat, and numerous studies have shown that far-infrared relieves aches and pains (including arthritis pain), improves circulation, helps heal wounds, and so on. I’m thankful for our sauna.
You’re probably ready — perhaps eager — to say that Kent is one smug son of a beech. I suppose I am, but I also know that it didn’t have to turn out this well. In fact, I just got word this morning that another of my colleagues from the old days at a Kentucky university where we all taught has died (we’re dropping fast) and two are in bad shape.
The gods have smiled on me. They could have looked the other way.
You have done well, my friend…
Is it true, Kent, that if you take joy in the small pleasures in life then the large problems seem smaller as well? I hope so. As I look at your handsome sauna, it seems very fortunate that your bathroom had the cubbyhole already built in. Your DIY sauna kit fits perfectly! Enjoy!
Is there a model that comes with an ice-covered lake to jump into? If so, does it automatically cut a hole in the ice for you?
code, that cubbyhole contained a very big jetted tub. I had it taken out and the floor retiled.
I wish.
I remember some of your early posts about Bob the Dog. If I remember correctly, you had not had a dog before and you found him to be a “revelation”. If you didn’t actually say it, you did in my mind. I thought how wonderful it was that you could experience perhaps such unexpected joy later in life. Gave me hope that life from here on out was more than just loss.
Cat, Bob was our first dog and he was a revelation. Now I don’t know what I’d do without him.
You just posted that to make us all jealous, didn’t you Kent?
(Thanks for the Bob photo!)
Yes. Bob thanks you.
That’s a beautiful post and love the pictures! You are very lucky and blessed. How is your eye from your spill?
He has the cutest nose! (I meant Bob)…
I thought it was just tooooo fortunate to have a readymade space pre-existing in your bathroom. I used to sell those big jetted bathtubs back in the day. I sold saunas as well. I guided people away from the extra large tub for two. Most of the time the builder forgot to add an adequately sized hot water heater and used a slow filling faucet. That combination created a total lack of functionality for the tub. It seems that nobody uses their jetted bathtub these days. Times change. Now the freestanding bathtub is all the rage. That won’t last either.
Cat, after all this time, I still have a black eye. I really banged up the darned thing.
I always wondered what Bob looked like, other than just his face. Thanks for sharing.
I have never heard of such a thing. How interesting.
That foot treatment sounds fantastic. Sounds like long-term treatment may be required.