Okay, that last entry was a major drag. I apologize for getting carried away like that. As I said, I have a difficult time with the holidays, and I do tend to get overwhelmed with anxiety and ennui as they approach. I really would like to just run away from them. I guess I’ve turned into my father after all.

That said, however, I do try to enjoy them. inasmuch as my particular form of social retardation allows. So in that spirit, I’m now going to do what I’ve seen so many other bloggers and Facebookers doing today and list off a few of the things for which I’m thankful on Thanksgiving. Well, maybe not actually on Thanksgiving, which is of course just another stressful damn holiday, but in general. You know what I mean…

In no particular order, I’m thankful for:

• The Girlfriend and her shockingly extensive (but not actually inexhaustible) patience for all my BS.
• My parents, and the fact that they’re still relatively healthy and youthful compared to many of their friends.
• Motion pictures.
• Mountains and rivers and deserts and green, cool places.
• Coffee.
• Mexican Coke.
• Rock and roll, and the blues music that fathered it.
• Electric guitars.
• My friends, in all their shocking diversity. I have tried to imagine what it would be like to get them all together in the same place, and honestly, I just can’t. If nothing else, the explosion of so much matter and anti-matter coming together would be… colorful.
• All the pets I’ve shared my life with, and who have provided me with love and comfort and joy in the way that only uncomplicated non-humans can: dogs, horses, pocket parrots, ducks, and most recently, my three goofy but lovable kitty-boys and their grouchy mother.
• The classic television legacy of Stephen J. Cannell and Donald Bellisario.
• The original Star Trek.
• The original Star Wars trilogy.
• A job that I (mostly) like, that pays me a comfortable salary and gives me an opportunity to work with people that I (mostly) like.
• Slurpees.
• A motorhead dad who’s always been there to bail me out of automotive jams.
• A motorhead dad who has given me the opportunity to drive and love real automobiles from Detroit’s glory days.
• The opportunities I’ve had to travel and see the world beyond the limited horizons of Utah.
• My knack for understanding most things quickly and (relatively) easily.
• My memory, which I’ve long taken for granted but am now learning seems to be far clearer and more far-reaching than many people’s.
• Warm summer days when the sky is tall and brilliant.
• Days when I leave work while the sun is still shining.
• Pretty young things in flirty summer dresses.
• Pretty young things in jeans and knee-high boots.
• Classy grown-up ladies wearing the same outfits as the pretty young things.
• My luck in growing up in the 1970s and ’80s, before the digital revolution, when life was perhaps not simpler, but certainly seemed a lot more authentic.
• My weird ability to easily imagine what life was like before I was born, and to feel some affinity for the 1940s and ’50s.
• The fact that I grew up essentially rural, but with a city a mere 20 minutes away.
• My passport.
• Leather jackets.
• Roses.
• Summer thunderstorms.
• The artwork of Frank Frazetta and Al Williamson.
• Long underwear when the overnight low temperature drops to 10 degrees or less (like tonight).
• Fresh peaches.
• Homemade ice cream.
• Blogs.
• Digital photography. I know, I’m Mr. Analog, but if nothing else, going digital has saved me a lot of money on film and processing.
• Cold water on a hot day.
• Tailored shirts.
• Used bookstores.
• Communities that give a crap about preserving interesting bits of the past (unlike Utah generally, and my hometown in particular).
• A mom who saved everything while I was growing up, so I can make the decision about whether or not to keep something myself.
• The fact that I still have so much from my childhood, while everyone else I know laments things long gone…

That seems like a rather anti-climatic place to leave off, but that’s all I can come up with right now. Hope it’s enough…