I love yesterday’s kind of day: lots of 72° sunshine, blue sky and cool, crisp air. A day for happiness. Smiling. Joy.

We had a rousing book group meeting up in Los Altos night before and I didn’t get to bed ’til after 11pm. Deep asleep, I barely heard the alarm, but it registered enough to get me up and keep me up.

It was a little chilly when I took Riley and Little He out for their morning constitutional. Like Mutt and Jeff, they never fail to make me laugh — they’re adorable together. Hebert sticks so close to Riley–dogs him, so to speak–and life is so much easier because they get along so well.

M got dressed and took off right away for the car dealer, as his driver’s side window was off-track. When our new red coffeemaker stopped gurgling, I poured a big mug of strong, dark coffee, topped it with half and half and went directly to my office in my robe to delete spam from my AOL junk mail account.

Wandering back into the bedroom a few minutes later I found the San Jose Mercury News on the bed, set it aside and picked up the dirty clothes. After I started a load of laundry, I took a few minutes to read it through. I still love reading the paper every day. And then I worked on a few blog posts, as I do every morning. No heavy lifting, just fun writing.

Yes, I need to be writing my memoir but I just wasn’t in the right space to do that. I wanted another day off, to unwrap some saltwater taffy, to play hooky at the beach. Figuratively.

So after a hot shower I took off for the grocery store. It was one of those days when I could have just cranked the music up and driven for hours, enjoying the bright day and happy feelings. I wandered the aisles for an hour at Safeway and the long lines and full baskets ahead of me made barely a dent in my mood.

Life is just too short to worry about the small stuff and I have no patience anymore for negativity. None.

At checkout, I saw the latest edition of Rolling Stone and grabbed it. It has a beautifully written story on Steve Jobs. I’d been anxious to read it and it lived up to the hype. Walter Isaacson’s book is on my Kindle; it’s also quite good. When I got home, I remembered the clothes needed to go in the dryer.

My financial advisor in Tampa called just before 1pm. We all had a long conversation about what was and wasn’t true about the financial markets, about the Occupy movements, media coverage and politics. It’s always strange to hear someone in my world say “Well, if we can’t have a Republican in there….” I always remind financial types that I’m decidedly left of center.

We worked up a bit of hunger after that, so I made pastrami and mustard sandwiches for lunch and then signed up for a free trial for SiriusXM. There’s a special event all weekend on Sirius and I want to hear it. I’ll cancel thereafter, though, because I get pretty much the same content from Comcast or AOL.

Clothes out of the dryer and folded. I love everything about doing laundry, but especially the smell of clean, dry cotton as I fold it on a sunny day.

A nap was definitely in order, but first, I listened to a replay of a conference call hosted by a spiritual website I follow. I tried not to fall asleep. I’d like to be able to nap, but can’t seem to get over feeling that sleep means I’ll miss something: the chapter in a book, a great movie, a diverting TV show, time with M and the dog.

So we watched us some TV. Grey’s Anatomy, to be exact. A couple of shows we needed to catch up on. But not before M fed the dogs and made us dinner.

I like days like this, spent doing nothing important. Chores got done. If I were still working, I’d have done many of the same things in between my work responsibilities. But the slow, mellow pace of days now is really delightful.

Pretty soon it’ll be dark by 5 p.m. The temperature will drop despite the sunshine and it’ll be time to light the fireplaces newly certified by a professional chimney sweep as safe to operate. I’ll buy a turkey and we’ll have company for Thanksgiving. Up in the Santa Cruz mountains, we’ll get a Christmas tree and string it with colored lights.

The year’s drawing to an end.

Joy is everywhere if I just look.

And I have an attitude of gratitude. Yes I do.