Thanksgiving in December

One of the things I've been doing over this Holiday break is to clean up, sort and store (or toss) old papers and miscellaneous items that I've been moving around for years. A lot of random junk and paperwork is being recycled or thrown away but I've also found some neat stuff that's jogged my memory about how much I have to be grateful for. So I'll take this opportunity to say how much I appreciate the unbelievable good fortune that's been a constant factor in my life.

• Family

For the families who tolerated my foibles for so many years. I'm an American mutt with a lot of Irish, Scottish and other blood in my veins. To quote Bill Murray's character in Stripes:

We're Americans, with a capital 'A', huh? You know what that means? Do ya? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We're the underdog. We're mutts! Here's proof: his nose is cold! But there's no animal that's more faithful, that's more loyal, more lovable than the mutt. Who saw "Old Yeller?" Who cried when Old Yeller got shot at the end?

My parents were (mom still is) two good people who probably didn't belong together and they split when I was a kid. But having both parents' families around provided a foundation that enabled me to get through university. 16 years of Catholic school...I'm sure if anyone I ever dated reads this, they'll find that unbelievable (wink, wink).

(One aside here: 3 of my 4 grandparents were originally Canadian, a fact that is of considerable pride to me and perhaps shame to friends from the Great White North who will read this screed.)

• Good fortune starting out

When I exited the university with a Math degree, the economy wasn't doing so well; back home in upstate NY it still isn't. But a good friend helped me get my first computer job and then GE moved me out to California. A year later, I was in Europe for the first time, looking down into the core of a Swiss nuclear reactor. GE sent me to the Bern area twice, for a total of about 3 months.

(I will now pause and thank all the coworkers and managers who had to deal with me in my first few jobs, for their absurd tolerance when I was ridiculously attitudinal. I will endeavor to emulate your benevolence and extend it to others, including loud annoying herding dogs and people driving 10 under in the fast lane.)

A lot of things enriched my life during my 10 years in California. Shortly after moving there, I lucked onto fantastic karate school where I trained for a few years. Several bookstores became favorite haunts. I dated a few neat women and was taught how to drive fast in the hills over the Silicon Valley. I was very lucky in having good friends too, such as a coworker who shared an apartment with me for a year. She and her friends were from Calgary and taught me a lot about motorcycle safety.

The night of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake was a strange one: I was riding 280 home on my motorcycle when it hit and didn't feel much of the quake. But I did meet my wife that night. A few years later, an awesome daughter named Elise joined us.

• Living near Seattle

Life in California was getting tiresome by that point (costs, crowding, regulatory excess), so we moved to Iowa for a few years and then back to the West Coast, in the Seattle area. The Puget Sound area has got its pros and cons but overall it's the best place that I've lived and I can't imagine anywhere else in the country. The drivers are "interesting" but the politics are interestingly moderate...equal rights legislation does well here and bad gun laws don't. The mix suits me.

• Being able to stay employed and healthy

For all my grumbling about work eating my life this year, I'm well aware that I've been very very fortunate to stay employed in an abysmal economy. I've seen a number of good people be unemployed for many months, which certainly brings home home how fortunate I've been. So I'll be endeavoring to contribute even more at work this year.

And then there's my ridiculous good fortune in not getting squished in September. I tell the story in detail on my motorcycling blog but basically a mountain North of Nelson, BC dropped big rocks all over the road while I was underneath...my Speed Triple motorcycle was totaled, yet I walked away with only a sprained wrist and sundry minor sore bits