Do you ever have days where things just seem to go exceptionally right, even though they're challenging? I'm having one of those today, and I'm grateful for it. And welcome to the Daily Grateful. I am Michael Gross, and it's Thursday, and I'm recording this on Wednesday.
I'm also recording Friday's episode on today, on Wednesday, right after I'm done recording this episode. And I have no idea what that episode is going to be, but I know what this episode is going to be. It's about never giving up, because there's always a way to make things work. My kids will tell you that I say that all the damn time, and I do.
You find a way to make it work. Now, there's a hurricane that's supposed to be here tomorrow. It is breezy, not raining, temperature is not incredibly hot, and it's somewhat pleasant out right now, okay? So I said, all right, electricity's probably going to go out, thus I'm recording a couple of episodes ahead here.
And so we'll see what happens. Anywho, as it happens, I'm on the phone today with someone who will remain nameless. One of my ex-wives. Not my favorite one.
And I said, I got to go to the store because I got to buy bread and stuff like that. She goes, oh, well, good luck. She goes, I was a public, and they have nothing. I said, oh, okay.
And she's usually very prepared. Usually if someone starts a rumor that there might be a storm, she's at the grocery store filling like five cartes full of stuff. But she's okay. She's got everything she needs.
Then as I'm getting ready to leave, I get a call from ex-wife number two, favorite ex-wife. And I said, I'm going to Walmart. She goes, well, good luck. Actually, I wanted to go to BJs.
I wanted to go to BJs because Walmart has raised the price of the 16-ounce bottles of diet coke to like $5 and something instead of $3 and something. So if I went to BJs, I could buy a case of them and save money. That was the only reason I was going to go to BJs plus I was going to buy a 35-can case of Coke Zero for my son. And I would pick up bread there.
And Diane says, oh, just Walmart has lowered the price of Diet Coke down to three something. I said, oh, well, there's a Walmart grocery store right around the corner. I said, well, I'm going there. She goes, well, good luck.
I said, I'm going to get bread because you're not going to find bread in the shelves. I was like, OK, parking lot, jam packed full of people. She says, I said, OK, so I just scoot out here and I realized, well, I love my cell phone at home. By the way, I'm all known.
I haven't even checked my cell phone. I should probably do that after this podcast. Anyhow, I drive into Walmart parking lot. It's not full.
I pull right up close to the front, park, hop out, walk in, grab myself a shopping cart, and I see carrot cake right there at the beginning, a slice of carrot cake. I said, I want me that. So I bought myself. I bought myself a slice of carrot cake and I said, there, look, I go down the soda aisle and they only have three six packs of the Diet Coke in the 16 ounce bottle.
I said, that's OK. I'll take that. You know, that'll last then then they had one 24 case thingy of Coke zero, which is what my son likes. So I grab that grab the last one.
I said, oh, gosh, I'm so grateful. This is so nice. And then like right next to me there is this couple, they got a probably about a four-year-old kid. They got this teeny tiny little baby.
He's looking at the teeny tiny little baby. Look at the kid. Look at the kid. Look at the kid.
Look at the kid. Look at the kid. Look at that awesome young man there. I said, look at him.
Look at you being so awesome. He gave me five made my day. I hope I made his day. Off I went.
It was cute little baby. But I wasn't going to acknowledge the kid. I was acknowledging the kid. He was kind of left out.
I said, oh, no, no, no. So then I go around to the bread aisle. Now this is where you have to find my philosophy. You have to find a way to make it work.
I want to buy two loaves of bread. And I buy this. It's called butter bread. I like it.
It's probably not the best for you. I don't eat a lot of bread these days. But, you know, if there's no electricity, I've got bread, got peanut butter. So I want to, and they don't have any of it.
Now look, way up at the top shelf, way up high and there's two loaves of it up on the top shelf. I am five foot nine. I'm stretching up there. I cannot reach these things.
And there's nobody around who's tall because I would have grabbed anybody who's tall and asked them to get it down for me. And I said, okay, I need those things. This is not rocket surgery. I need these things.
How am I going to do this? And I look and there was the boxes where they had cans of pickles. Pickles were not in it. They had glasses on the aisle that they hadn't picked up yet.
I grabbed one and I reached up and I grabbed down to, you know, I was pushing the loaf of bread. Boom. One loaf of bread comes down and said, look at me. And then I go up there again.
And there's this lady who works at Wal-Mart. She's at the other side of the aisle. She's watching me. And I go, okay, I got one mark.
It takes a little while. But I get that thing and come down and say, how about that? And then I take the box and I walk over and I put it where all the other boxes are. And she goes, you're an ingenious young man.
I said, I know. And I said, I always find a way to make it work. I needed two loaves of bread. I found a way.
I was supposed to make you happy. I said, well, you know, I just come get these things that I need to make it through this horrible storm that's coming. But I would like some host of scupcakes, just I don't think we have any. And then she pulls out her little phone that has the app on it and she does this little thingy.
She goes, if we have them, they'll be on aisle five. I said, okay. I said, you have a great day. I said, you have a great day.
So boom goes the dynamite. I go to aisle five and there they are. All that I wanted. I just wanted one box.
I grabbed a box. I threw it in. I said, look at me. I have accomplished everything I said, I have to accomplish.
And I'm feeling so good. And I check myself out and then I look over and I see that nice little lady that was talking to me there at Walmart and she's behind the service desk and they sell a lot of tickets. I said, things are going well today. I should go buy me a lot of a ticket.
So I go over there and I was going to talk to her because, you know, she's now my my friend, but she's busy with another guy who is complaining about a air filter that he bought. But there's these two young young people there, one of them is named Tyler, my oldest son's name is Tyler. And she's arguing with this woman. And this woman is, you know, I need you to do this.
And she goes, I'm off the clock. I just signed out and he goes, well, you know, and then she goes, I need to get wipes. I forgot to get wipes. I said, Tyler, why don't you go get her some wipes?
And he goes, no, I'm going to get her wipes. I said, you know, she don't look like somebody that you'd want to, you know, piss off. And she is laughing at me. She's just, so I'm having a good time with them.
And I bought them my lotto tickets from them, told me have a nice day. I said, Tyler. I said, you like her? Yes.
I like her. I said, go get her some wipes. He says, yes, sir. And off he went, she's looking at me.
She goes, you'll be all right, man. I said, no. So anyway, off I go and I drive home and I come into the studio and I eat my piece of carrot cake. I'm drinking on some Diet Coke.
And there's always things to be grateful for, you know, you can always figure out a way to make things work. Be that grabbing a cardboard box and pulling the bread off the top shelf. And by the way, I didn't even have to wait to check out when I went to check it. I didn't even have to wait, you know, to buy my lotto tickets.
Who knows if I win? Who knows if I win? So it's kind of a cool day. I'm rather enjoying it so far.
So now I got to go find my cell phone, see if anybody important, call me. And then, and then I got to come in here and record the Friday episode because there's a reasonable chance that we will not have electricity on Friday. There's a reasonable chance. And if that's the case, I'm going to my ex-wife, my favorite ex-wife Diane's house because she's got a generator and a portable air conditioner.
Yeah. All right. Have a terrific day.