Under the Wire

Thanksgiving is coming up soon. I’m not sure if it is a national tradition to use the occasion to stop for a moment and think of the things we are thankful for or not. At our house, however, that’s what we do. In case that’s not how you honor the event, I thought I would share my own list with you. Maybe it will encourage you to make your own, even better, list.

In these troubled financial times I am thankful to already be poor. While others mourn the loss of their villa in France, a major portion of their considerable stock portfolio, a decline in their 401K or some other number that means a lot to them, not much has changed for me. I don’t have any of those things including the 401K thing. Early in my life I figured out if I was ever going to make any big money I would have to get a job. It just didn’t seem worth it to me. Now it seems if I had gotten one, I might not be much better off anyway. We do have a 401 C. The “C” stands for cows.

Speaking of cows, I am thankful for a bad cattle market. Don’t come hang me before I explain this one. Last year you might remember we had a good market. In fact, it had been good for several years before. I also found out I had a little cancer problem last year. Turns out I probably had been carrying that around several years before, too. I will have surgery right after getting those good calf prices. This year the prices pretty much stunk. I didn’t have cancer, though. This will go down in my book as a good year.

I’m thankful to have a horse that will buck me off if I don’t watch him all the time. The only way I can get along with him is ride a lot. I ride sometimes when using a pickup would be faster. Because of that sorry excuse for a horse, I have gotten to look at the grass in the pastures more than some years, watch the cactus bloom and notice the sage sure smells good after a rain. I’m beginning to like that miserable horse for all the good experiences he’s forced me to have.

I’m thankful I never really grew up and what little growing up I did was to be a bit on the strange side. Right after I learned I wasn’t cut out to hold a real job I discovered if I put some of my off beat ideas down on paper, folks would read them and smile a bit. Since newspapers like to have people read them, a few began sending me checks to keep being strange. Seems to pay about the same as work.

Not all my thankfulness is strange, though. I’m thankful God and my wife Sue love me. I’m thankful to have children who may not always like me, but probably always love me and a growing number of grandkids who seem to think I’m pretty cool, especially the one who isn’t even old enough to talk yet.

Yep, it’s good to be thankful on Thanksgiving. It’s even better to be thankful for things no one else might think of. Go on, make your own list. Some might think you’re crazy but that’s OK. I guarantee it will make you feel better.

Happy THANKSgiving.