**

Happy Thanksgiving

I am Thankful for friends. New friends, old friends, friends that offer unconditional love and support. Thank you so much, you know who you are. I am thankful for family. My brother and sister are coming in today and this will be the first time the whole family has been together for the holidays in several years. I thank the gods I don't believe in for allowing that to happen. I am thankful for my children and, yes, even my wife. She is their mother, I am their father, we have been married coming up on 22 years and we will always have that connection in common no matter what happens to us. My kids are my life. I just wish I had been a better father to them as they were growing up. In spite of my failings as a parent, they turned out to be well behaved, well mannered, independent young men. For that I am thankful. I am thankful for love. Love found, love fought over, love lost and love growing. Love makes me feel alive and I am thankful to have known it in the past year. I am thankful for my job. It's a career with a good future ahead of me. I work with some really great people doing important work. Sometimes I forget that and for that I am ashamed. I am thankful for the Soldiers whose stories I tell. For those serving in a cold desert far from family or on a lonely guard post looking into North Korea. They serve for an ideal they believe is worth their lives .. freedom. Thank you for your service I am thankful for my parents. Over the years we have had our differences. I have broken their hearts. But they have always been there every time I needed anything, be it $1,000 or an encouraging word. Thank you mom and dad. I am thankful to be living in the greatest nation on the face of the planet. We squabble, we infight and backbite. We have our problems, but even our poor have a better life than those in 99% of the world. Thank you America for continuing to be the land of opportunity. I know I have been down and morose, bellicose and a general downer lately, but I am thankful today for life. For the ability to get up in the morning and go to work. For health and bountiful plenty. For the ability to feel joy and pain and know that as long as I feel them, I am alive and able to fight another day. It's good to be alive. I am truly thankful today. How about you? Happy Thanksgiving everybody ... with all my love. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going over to mom's and help her with the baking. We got folks coming over!