It's been a long time since I've sat by the fire to write you, or anybody else for that matter.  Seasonal changes naturally contribute to our ways and means, and the heat from a fireplace is simply out of sorts with the heat of a midsummer's day.
Okay, so we didn't have a lot of heat these past summer days and a fire might have felt good once in a while.  So much for global warming, but you get the drift.   It also seems fitting and proper in these post-summer days to recognize this particular season of thanksgiving.  My personal list of thanksgiving starts at the beginning of each day and doesn't stop until my head touches a pillow -- maybe it's that way with you also -- but if you actually had to write it down on a sheet of paper, all those things that make you give thanks, what would your list include? 
Where would you start?  Where would you end?  How would you tell other people about it without sounding too sappy or stupid?  What if you were the editor of a local newspaper who had to fill up all this space before you turned off the lights at the end of a day?
I am thankful for waking up in the morning and hearing Allan is in the shower.  There's a lot of freedom in having a big bed and all the blankets and pillows to yourself while you listen to the toaster and the garage doors go up and down.  It seems I sleep better with the smell of toast and jam in the air and the sound of a pickup truck heading out of the neighborhood.
I am thankful that my coffeemaker is fast and that I don't have to get dressed up fancy to greet the day.  I am thankful that I can jump in and out of the tub and step directly into my office with a wet head and dry slippers to answer email and typeset news and design ads while listening to my favorite radio and television personalities.  I am thankful that there is an alternative to perky people in high heels and lipstick in the morning.
I am thankful that my cable is working most days, and that I am therefore able to communicate with people all over the state, the city, the world.  Now that the road reconstruction project in our lovely neighborhood is finally completed, we should be free of cut lines and interrupted services.  It was a long dirty summer any way you look at it.  I am thankful there are civil engineers and road builders, but I also thankful that their season has come to an end for a while.
I am thankful for so many of you who read the Gazette and respond to it on a regular basis.  You are phenomenal!  I am thankful for so many of you who also check my website and write notes and messages of support and encouragement.  You are awesome!  You are the best!  I am thankful for literacy and logic and love.
I am thankful for my homey office here on Lilac Lane, and everything in it that keeps me company and warms my heart and soul.  Take my life, take my liberty, take my living room, but don't take my Gazette office!  I am thankful for its eastern window onto the world that shows me the sun each morning and the sun's reflections each evening, not to mention the naughty little squirrels that chase and bite each other up and down our trees. 
I am thankful each time Jenny and Nick call to say hello and how are you and can they come over for dinner.  I am thankful for realities of their precious childhood, their school days, their growing up days, and the satisfaction of seeing them walk and talk and act like adults.  I want to give them everything good under the sun. 
I am thankful for a place in Victoria where I can run into old friends and new friends and eat a good meal at the same time.  I am thankful for people who know my strengths and weaknesses and don't hold them against me for too long.  I am thankful for people who make me laugh and notice how funny we are.   I am thankful, especially, for people who hold the truth of things near and dear to their hearts.
I am thankful for Addie.  How I love the little honey bunny, the little sweetie pea, the little pumpkin pie.  Addie wants to be potty trained now and she climbs out of her crib and attempts pronunciation of every word and teases her parents with unusual humor and understanding.  (There are lots of new pictures in Sue's Album at www.VictoriaGazette.com.)
Gosh, this wasn't so hard.  Is that sort of what you had in mind for this column?  Guess I'll sit by the fire more often in these cool days and nights.  Good things are evident from sunup to sundown, and it's good to have them in front of us along with the cranberries and the turkey and the stuffing. 
                                  ~Sue