What am I thankful for this year? Simple things. Some are in the future. Like how I’m going to remember to defrost the turkey early this year. Maybe then I won’t have to stand panicked in the kitchen with a hair dryer as I try to get a leg to un-freeze. Or jam a hand into the cavity of the bird while desperately trying to pry some giblets out. Nothing like getting frost-bite in the process.
I wonder if Thanksgiving is the only time Florida hospitals have to treat patients for frostbite?
I’m thankful there’s a new Star Wars movie coming out next month. If I’m lucky — if we’re ALL really lucky — there will be a new one every year for the rest of my life.
Even though I feel guilty about it — because others I know weren’t so lucky — I’m thankful that my street sits so high up in Lincolnville. That the surging waters of Hurricane Matthew tried, but just couldn’t overcome that elevation. And I’m thankful that as bad as it was, it wasn’t worse. That it didn’t come 15-20 miles — shoot, even 5 miles — closer to the coast. Imagine if it had.
I’m thankful for family. All of them. Even my aunt … who I will have to go pick up in Palatka on Wednesday night when she arrives by train from Tampa. I will drive there in the dark, scoop her up and then listen to her rants on the election that will make even a foul-mouthed baboon like me blush. But I won’t mind. Because I’ll be thankful for her, all the same.
I’m thankful that I didn’t totally blow it in my recent marathon. I ran my first of three marathons in 1999, as a much younger lad. I did well … right up until mile number 20. That’s the moment when an asteroid streaked out of the sky, struck me and I fell completely apart. I still finished with a respectable time, but for years wondered if I could top it. Eight years later I trained better and tried a second marathon. The asteroid streaked down even sooner — at mile 18 that time — and I finished a devastating three minutes slower than the first.
I never tried again, especially after a brutal surfing accident in which my surfboard fin impaled the inside of my right thigh. It threatened to end my running career completely.
This year I got the courage to try another marathon. Could I do it? Would my leg hold up? Could I top a time that from 17 years ago, as a much younger man?
This year, no asteroid. Not only did I finish, but I dropped six minutes off my first try. I still can’t figure out how — did my watch malfunction?!? But I’m thankful I tried again, and that a little mental determination can help you overcome those hurdles you dread — or fear! — the most.
Finally, I’m thankful that as bad as frozen turkey frostbite might be, it still doesn’t hurt as much as your legs do after running a soul-enriching marathon.