Being Thankful

The year is winding down with Thanksgiving tomorrow. Wow, what a year! For a time, nobody at my house had a job or income. That's not a fun feeling. Now our health insurance is "iffy" or non-existent with changes happening all the time.

My scanner won't convert scanned images into text. The OCR software is not working. The "g" keycap came off the laptop so I glued it back on with Elmer's. Now the key is just a clump of glue. My camcorder gave out after the trip to Laguna Beach so I had the Canon repair folks put it straight for $150. My computer boots up with a red screen and the monitor cable is flaky. My ink jet printer crapped out so I had to get it replaced $175. My medical coverage has expired and I'm between insurance companies so to refill two of my prescriptions was $580. How is your day? Are we having fun yet?

I am very thankful for having friends. I really appreciate the few I have because I know how "fair weather" they can be. When I was working, I thought I had quite a few friends and I really appreciated them. After I lost my job, my friends were scarce. Now I admit I am not the most pleasant person to hang with when things are down, but I really didn't think I would fall off the map. With some of my old friends, I did.

My newer friends are online friends for the most part and I am blessed to have them. You would be surprised they are much younger than I am. That really doesn't matter to me at all. They live all over the planet too which is fun. I also have a couple of buddies in my aerobic aquatic class and I look forward to seeing them every week.

You should always be thankful for your health. Mine is not the greatest, but I manage to get out of bed on a regular basis. My sister just got out of the hospital after a week in Intensive Care for blood clots. So we should be thankful for our families too.

My son is in Afghanistan and while his mother and I worry a lot we are extremely thankful that he is alive. My wife's parents are having their medical problems too and we are thankful to still have them around. On one hand, I quarrel with my brothers and sisters but on the other, I am happy to have them. My children are responsible for considerable heartburn, but they too are surviving and doing their best and I really appreciate that.