Just Short of FANTASTIC!

Whenever someone asked my step grandfather how he was doing he would always say, "Just short of Fantastic." Most of the time I know he did feel fantastic since he had lung cancer and was terminal for the last ten years or so of his life. But, he was always smiling and when someone asked how he was that was always his answer. I will always remember that about him even in pain he never complained and always said he was just short of fantastic. 

I am not sick with anything terminal and when I feel like I am having a crappy day when nothing seems to go right, when my mom is in a bad mood, my son doesn't want to do his homework, the neighbors are arguing in the streets so loud that you can hear them in the next country, and the washer had a leak and leaked water all over the floor and I am running to get the mop which I thought was inside but figured out after the mini flood I was having and the mini heart attack I would be having (not literally) that the mop is outside with the bucket on the porch, I look up at the heavens and smile and try to remember that although my day might not be just short of fantastic I am still here to live another day. Those are the times when I remember my grandfather's smiling face and although he was in a lot of pain and on a lot of pain medications you would never know that he wasn't just short of fantastic. 

So, earlier when I was taking some fall or Autumn pictures of the trees and the leaves and walking around the parking lot doing it a neighbor came outside to go to her car and she asked me how my day was going. I looked at her and smiled and said it was just short of fantastic.