Wally Spiers: Plenty to be thankful for this season

Continuing a tradition I started many years ago in this column, here are my thankfuls for this Thanksgiving holiday.

I am thankful that there are people willing to serve in the military to do the jobs I cannot do, even though it often means they must be away from home and family and sometimes in harm’s way.

I am thankful for a magical St. Louis Cardinals baseball season even though it ended a little earlier than we hoped it would.

I am thankful that whatever ends up happening to the St. Louis Rams, it won’t cost me a dime unless they figure out some devious way to tax the people on this side of the Mississippi River.

I am thankful for retirement.

But even in retirement, I am thankful for getting to write once a week though that means that at least once a week I doubt my own sanity when I realize I have volunteered to write a column rather than do nothing. It always seems like much more fun after it is done and I can forget about it for a few days until the next one is due.

I am thankful for auctions which keep me endlessly entertained, constantly broke and forever in search of some place to store extra stuff.

I know I repeat this every year, but I am so thankful for chocolate chip cookies. And cinnamon rolls.

I am grateful for downtown Belleville where I can wander on the wide sidewalks, peruse the colorful store windows and marvel at the amazingly intricate gingerbread houses.

I am thankful for the really cool gold pocket watch and chain my colleagues gave me for my retirement.

I am thankful for our cabin on the farm over in Missouri, even if I will be working on it for the rest of my life.

I am thankful for the Internet which I can ignore or embrace at my choice.

I would be remiss if I wasn’t thankful for solitaire, even if it wastes hours of my life every week, and it delayed this column a bit while I went over and won a few hands. I only wonder how high the games played counter goes? Higher than four figures? Guess I’ll know in a few weeks.

I’m thankful for all my animals, although more thankful for some than others and sometimes not for any at all depending on what recent disaster they have caused.

I am thankful for the new signs on the crosswalks in downtown Belleville reminding motorists they are required by law to stop for pedestrians in the crosswalks. I only wish that more motorists would pay attention to them, particularly on the square.

I am thankful for the New York Times Acrostic word puzzle which never fails to elevate my mood, even when I can’t figure out the answers. Their Sunday crossword puzzle also is fun.

I am thankful that I no longer even have to go out of my door if I don’t want to on the big shopping day Black Friday. Tried it once, hated it.

Finally, I am thankful I get to come to you once a week with, as a colleague called them, my musings.

Have a happy Thanksgiving.

This story was originally published November 21, 2015 at 4:00 AM with the headline "Wally Spiers: Plenty to be thankful for this season."