Dear Readers,

Elsewhere on this site, you will find folks who are thankful for all sorts of blessings. I am thankful, too.

I am thankful our boys and girls are coming home from the Middle Eastern conflicts. Folks can argue until they are blue in the face over the reasons we should have or shouldn’t have gotten into the mess in the first place, but no one can argue they caused a lot of pain for the service members and their families. I applaud their service on our behalf.

I am thankful many of them will take off their uniforms and get right back into civilian life. I am hopeful those who are not able to get right back into civilian life will soon be.

While the service members were overseas, they were concentrating on their jobs. Whether they were Seabees or Seals, combat medics or cooks, they were focused on their jobs. 

Back at home, spouses and parents sat home and waited. They watched TV and checked their email for some news of their loved ones, all the while hoping and praying they would not see their faces, or worse, their broken bodies on the evening news. Welcome home troops. We are thankful for your safe return.

I am thankful there are those out there who think it is important to find jobs for the vets.

I am thankful my TV set no longer is filled with political attack ads. But there was one consolation. A recent advertising journal mentioned stations are required to charge candidates the lowest rate for their TV commercials. However, the non-candidate commercials, like those of the “super PACs,” (you know, the ones that had all the subtlety of a train wreck) had to pay a whale of a lot higher rate.

While I am not a proponent of TV advertising, I am glad my TV station friends at least picked up a few additional dollars. 

I am thankful for my co-workers. They make my job a whale of a lot easier.

I am thankful for my family.  At Thanksgiving dinner, I always smile when I remember my father trying to carve the turkey. I remember my mother’s green beans, which were so overcooked they looked a bit gray.

I am thankful for my bride, her awesome kitchen skills and her insistence we retire in her hometown and not mine.

Lastly, I am thankful for you, our readers. Those of us who write for a living would starve if folks did not read our “deathless prose.”

Happy Thanksgiving.