A Thanksgiving Exercise

Today is the day that we set aside a time to give thanks. My daughter's kindergarten class had a little exercise: List 5 Things That You Are Thankful For. Of course, Alice listed the usual standard kindergartener's answers ... Mom and Dad ... the dog ... Polly Pocket ... Maddie [her best friend] ... her bike. Anyway, it's a good exercise that everybody should embrace, at least once a year. So today, Thanksgiving, I shall list 5 Things That I Am Thankful For:


1. My family, especially those two little blondies who call me "Mom" - they make me thankful every day.

2. Every man and woman in uniform that are serving or have served our country. I would be 98,322 times more thankful if our soldiers who are currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan were actually at home, sitting around the table with their families and stuffing themselves with turkey and pumpkin pie. God bless them.

3. I'm thankul that the Fairgrounds opens today and there is horse racing because we are invited over to our neighbor's house for Thanksgiving dinner and my friend is not planning to serve dinner until after the Cowboys' game. I have a very sneaky suspicion that my girlfriend will be starting the day early with mimosas and go from there. Dinner may prove to be interesting. By the way, I got to go make a pie just as soon as I finish this exercise.

4. Microwave popcorn and tolltags.

5. And finally, I'm thankful that the Texas Thoroughbred Association and the Texas Quater Horse Association decided to actually work together and provide unified support in an effort to keep Texas racing. Last week, representatives from both organizations met in Waco and signed, as Dave Hooper of the TTA refers to it, a "historic agreement",

a milestone agreement on breed splits of revenue that would flow to purses once Video Lottery Terminals are legalized and operational at Texas tracks.

So instead of proposing 16,763 varying gambling bills to the Texas Legislature, they should be able to introduce a greatly reduced number in an effort to install VLTs at racetracks which in turn will increase purses which in turn is good for Texas racing which in turn is good for the Texas horse industry which in turn is good for me because I like going to the racetrack and it is, after all, all about me. So I am thankful. And hopeful.

Happy Thanksgiving.