Gratitude I took for granted.

I have something to be incredibly thankful for. I usually have a very long list, but the most important are:

I still have my son, I still have the back part of the house, we still have our snake collection, and Mr. Sapphire still has a business where the critters are breeding.

We almost didn't.

One of our heavy-duty extension cord melted right in the middle, where the neat coils fused together in a bubbling mess. The fire alarms went off when the smoke got bad enough, but, because there were no flames (yet), we had difficulty finding it. By the time we did, it melted the carpet, the padding, and was on its way into the subfloor. I imagine, had the wood been any further burned, the flames would have started - right in Tiger's Eye's bedroom.

Count your blessings, name them one by one, and may your list be as long as mine!