Grin n bare it: a step by 473 step guide to getting nude on wreck beach.

“Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.” 

― Maya Angelou, Celebrations: Rituals of Peace and Prayer

Ok. so first of all, thank you, Higgs Lob on high, for Snob's return.  

And thank you for sunshine and fast bicycles.   

Thank you for University Hill and the climbs I can choose or combine to tailor my ride and thank you, oh thank you for this bit of road:

I love my life.

 Welcome to my happy place.  It's a place I like to ride on week-days at stupid o'clock in the morning, and on weekends at my leisure, except never at a leisurely pace.  You can really go fast for a good long stretch here, and that makes me very happy.  But this is the road to happiness for lots of reasons.  It's not just the peace of mind I feel as my body and breath move in rhythm, nor the endorphin rush, nor the high from hurtling through space with my face to the wind and the power of this motion pumping through my thighs.

Though that's pretty sweet, too.

This road makes me happy because it takes me to naked.

Thank you for naked!

  If you climb up University hill on a hot and sunny day and then you climb down 473 stairs, give or take,

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you, too, can be naked in the sun.

Mmm naked.

Naked is good.

The road to naked is known to have surprising twists and turns sometimes, you know.

University Endowment Lands

This type of detour through time and space is more likely to happen if some of that wacky Wednesday weed found its way into your Sunday brunch. Then you would be bakenaked if you ever found your way back to right-side-up-land. Not that I would know anything about it...

Still.

Thank you for right-side-up-world.

Oh!  And also, thank you for machine-gun wielding, side-car riding Baron Von Pugs.

If man's best friend doesn't put a grin on your face, what will?

Speaking of friends, thank you for friends who see you through in this topsy-turvey world,

and thank you for people who understand the power of kindness, people who aren't afraid to wield it:

Thank you for honesty,

...in it's bewildering array of manifestations.  I've been called a lot of things, but vapid is a new one.  I'm so dense it seems paradoxical somehow.
Any press is good press? 

“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.” 
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ok.  I'm grateful that my work at least inspires criticism, because that means it's making people think, if only to think "NO!"

The small boy announced as he was watching the latest version, that King Kong looks a lot like mum when he gets mad, or I am a lot like him.  In a quick one-two punch, only an hour later he wanted to know why we took naked photos over the weekend, exclaiming "If a little kid saw that, it could scar him for life!"

Sigh.  Does this mean it's time for a cleanse?

Thank you for reality checks. It's always good to see where you stand, and what the world thinks of you...

“Sometimes life knocks you on your ass... get up, get up, get up!!! Happiness is not the absence of problems, it's the ability to deal with them.” 
― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

Which reminds me.  Thank you for wine, almighty Lob.

Mmm Hmm, that's what I'm talking about, a cold glass of wine... under the hot sun... bare naked.

I'm definitely grinning now and what do you know?
I've bared it, too. :D

It is time to get up and get on with it, though.
Vancouver has two gorgeous stair workouts, the Grouse Grind, and Wreck Beach.  You know which I prefer, though the grind is a better workout.  

What else?
Oh, of course:
Thank you for Love.

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. 

John F. Kennedy

Yes! Blessed Be!
 Hmm... where did he get to now?