If this isn't nice, what is?

Most of you probably know I'm a huge fan of Kurt Vonnegut. Even though he went to heaven seven years ago (bonus points if you get that), his estate is still finding ways to churn out books, most recently in a volume of graduation and award acceptance speeches. (Highly recommend this, by the way.)

Among other things, he recalls that his uncle Alex taught him to stop and enjoy nice moments in life. No easy feat for a guy who battled bad depression his entire adult life, but he made it a point to share that story. They'd have, say, lemonade on a nice day, and his uncle would stop and say, "If this isn't nice, what is?"

Since my uncle had his stroke random stories and memories have been popping into my head. When he was married to my aunt, they lived near us in California and we spent lots of holidays and other occasions there. My uncle was always hilarious, even when talking about and dealing with things that would have made other people see sideways. Even in the hospital, he recently told my dad, "I'm getting out of here one way or another!"

He has always had a way, in effect, of saying what Kurt Vonnegut's uncle said.

Here are some snippets:

- Shortly after their 20th anniversary, my aunt said in a dreamy voice, "Wow, it doesn't feel like 20 years." My uncle: "No, it feels more like...19!" (They got divorced a couple of years later.)

- On the fact that their first house wasn't selling after they had moved out of state (after having rented it to college students): "I went to check it out and found out what the deal was. I called the realtor and said, 'Hello! The house isn't selling because there are 1,234 holes in the wall, and a PASTEL PICTURE OF GARFIELD has been drawn on the wall!'"

- They were notorious for letting their four kids, my cousins, have free reign growing up. At the ripe old age of six, my cousin Eve got mad at my uncle and spouted off, "Dad, you're an asshole!" We were silent and shocked. Later on that afternoon, she got mad at him for taking "her" chair. He quipped, "What do you expect from an asshole?"

- He told us that my dad asked him his GPA in graduate school. It was a 4.0. Then my dad apparently said, "Hey, my sister is coming into town this weekend, would you like to meet her?" My uncle: "Well apparently it was a good thing I didn't have a 3.5!"

And on one visit, the main entree was ham, which always made me ill even before I became a non-meat eater. He saw that I was uncomfortable, and without me saying much of anything, he got up from the table and started cooking me a piece of turkey.

Now if that isn't nice, what is?