Thanksgiving 2007

"Only a Turkey Isn't Thankful!"*

(Like my hand-turkey? Only took me 30 seconds (!!) with the computer! And it's just as good (or BETTER!!) than the ones I made when I was...oh....two.)

So, here is my "Thanks" list from last year. It's still a pretty good record of many of the things I'm grateful for...like:

1. For no longer having to sit at the kid's table

2. For living in the Greatest Nation on Earth...it has such potential. Give it a year...

3. For having a roof over my head (to keep out #7)

4. For my wife...and her infinite patience and grace

5. For my family...always there in good times, but especially in bad, and that includes the Niece and Nephew who have made the area a "haynt."**

6. For my friends who have stayed friends...no matter the distance...no matter the time, and the new folks I've met since last year who have enriched my life and made me appreciate the shock of the New

7. For the Nature that has surrounded me these past few months and made me stop...and consider...even if said Nature can be pesky and danged inconvenient at times

8. For the opportunities that life affords me on a day to day basis

9. For reading this, you stray readers who've made this a regular "haynt"** (even those of you who come here because of a stray link to a Leif Garrett picture, or the Norman Rockwell "Freedom from Want" painting, or even that employee of the State Department who was looking for a picture of Kato from the "Pink Panther" movies (you know who you are, and probably so does "W")--anyway, I have to subscribe to the "Premium" version of "Sitemeter" now...not that I'm complaining

10. For the memories*** (especially the ones still to come)

But I also wish to thank those of you who have helped me out this year, just through kindness when you didn't really have to, or a place to stay when I was on the road, or work when you didn't REALLY have to, or slipping my name to a colleague, or making me feel welcome, or just keeping in touch when I've fallen behind in my correspondence. Everybody is everybody else's Life Support System, and I've never believed that so much as this year.

Let's all be here next time this year.

* Thanks to the Church reader-board I passed for that

** That's a Carolina version of a "haunt"

***Which brings us to this audio blog by my buddy, Jeff Hoyt, courtesy of "Hoytus Interruptus" http://www.hoytus.com/?p=35