In a year where a lot has gone wrong, I am still thankful for what I have: a fantastic family, great friends, few financial worries, and a little success in my writing. 2012 has been a year of disaster and triumph for me personally, and I am not kidding when I say I have spent time just being glad I am still here to be thankful for anything.

But I thought I’d point out a few other things I’m thankful for:

– that medicine has come so far as to be able to help people with rare diseases now more often than not, and that the doctors and nurses are able to diagnose these diseases more quickly than ever. So Thank You to the doctors and nurses (especially at Puyallup’s Good Samaritan Hospital), to the researchers who work for years to find the treatment, to the people in the pharmaceutical companies who produce the medicine, and to the pharmacists who dispense it

– that my family and I are safe walking down the streets of my hometown. So Thank You to the local police, and to my neighbors, for keeping this a safe and welcoming community

– that there is food in the stores every day we want or need it; so Thank You to the clerks and cashiers in the grocery stores, to the truckers who spend their nights on the road away from their families, to the farm workers who break their backs picking it, and to the farmers who grow it

– that the streets I drive on aren’t flooded strips of mud every time it rains. So Thank You to the engineers who designed them, to the construction workers who built them, and to the maintenance crews who risk life and limb fixing them while traffic roars by at a bazillion miles per hour (Slow down folks)

– that the internet works, seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day so I can do the work that I do. So Thank You to the engineers who invented the technology, to the line workers who laid the cable, and to the developers who often worked thousands of hours on their own time to make it what it is today

– that the air where I live is clean, and I don’t fear that when my kids play in the dirt, that they are handling toxic sludge. So Thank You to the environmentalists who push for tougher regulations on polluters, to the scientists who do the research to prove that these chemicals are bad for the planet and its people, and to the people in the various levels of government who have stood up when they needed to stand up to protect us all

– that there continues to be a segment of society willing to push boundaries to expand our presence in space, whether it be to launch the satellites we need to predict hurricanes like Sandy, or to begin the process of making launching of cargo and people into space more cheaply. So Thank You to the people of NASA for their courage, to people like Elon Musk and Richard Branson for always dreaming big, and to the people who make science fiction a reality

Take a moment today to recognize the people who handle the ordinary (and extraordinary) things we depend on for our way of life here in America. Perhaps you fit into one of the above categories. If so, then I Thank You for your service.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!