Things For Which I'm Thankfully Thankful For

Weekend Assignment #35: Tell us something you should be thankful for -- but that you're usually not. After all, it's easy to be thankful for all the things you know you should be thankful for: Your family and friends, your home, the good things that come from living wherever (and whenever) you do. So try stretching a little and think about something that you're thankful for that you usually don't think much about at all. It can be serious or silly; it's up to you. You just have to be genuinely thankful for it -- once it comes to mind.

I am truly thankful for the person(s) who invented, patented and marketed toilet paper.  Can you imagine life without it?  I can't possibly conceive of a time when people used old Sears catalog pages, corncobs, bunches of grass or whatever to perform the task to which today, we turn to, spin and detach toilet paper for today.  I don't even want to think about what people did prior to the invention of any kind of paper at all!  I am also thankful for whoever invented paper towels and I honestly don't know how people existed without them.  I don't think I could; paper towels are one of my few, I don't care how many I use, indulgences.  At this time, I would also like to add to this "thankful" list the inventors of plastic wrap, wax paper and aluminum foil.  These are items we all use frequently and they have become indispensable (well, only if you buy the cheap kind that doesn't tear off or rip properly!)

I'm thankful for all the incontinent products on the market today which make the all-too-frequent problem a great many older people have much easier to deal with and it makes my job as a caregiver to many of these seniors a bit easier too.  Imagine how difficult life must've been for these folks before the advent of absorbant, disposable pads and underpants!  There must've been a whole lot of washing going on (and I won't even begin to touch on how difficult that chore once was) and not a very pleasant task at that, under the circumstances!!  I'm thankful for all the "feminine products" available today to help (they can get rid of the "Roses in Springtime" --whatever-- personal feminine spray and its variants, however; I think men prefer a woman to smell like a woman) see us through our monthly struggle that nature deems we women must endure.  These products help us to get through these times in a relatively tidy way.  We've come a long way from gathering and stuffing moss into leather straps, positioned in the strategic area (yes, I'm a Clan of the Cave Bear fan) or using wads of material held in place by God knows what fashion.  Again, more infernal washing.

My only complaint is that in regard to so many of these above-mentioned products, they are dreadfully expensive but have become so necessary to our lives that we'll pay whatever the manufacturer decides to charge.  And they know it.  It's a crime!