“C’mon, man. Fess up. Can’t be that great all the time!?”

No. Of course not. We have our troubles, our times of strife. Sal and I – like everyone – have walked barefoot on the sharp rocks of hardship and pain. There’s a dark side to our story. It is only natural.

She burned the toast once! (Swear to God!) The really hard part? She didn’t seem to care that much! It is at times like that I wonder who I married?

But we got through it.

A few times, I have been less than joy personified to be around. No, honest. Word up! Really. But, that always passes. Now? Now I am like sunlight in pants!

Of course there are the to-be-expected disappointments one simply can’t avoid: a clam shell with no clam in it, a picture in the camera that is too blurry to make out, a scrape or a bump on the knee. But, into every life a little clam has to come up empty now and then. Know what I mean? We can handle it.

With a little help from our friends.

The key: focus on the good stuff. Let the little stuff go. And put a sign on the fridge that says, ‘watch the toast!’.