Thursday, November 28, 2013

THANKSGIVING 2013

Thanksgiving seems redundant to me if only because, in the
wisdom of my years, I am thankful every day of my life.  With
darn good reason.

I have a better and happier life than I ever seriously believed I
would have.  I have a great wife, great kids, great friends and so
much more.  I live in a comfortable house in a good neighborhood.
I have a sweet cat who’s not too terribly demanding and, on those
increasingly rare days when I am ill, will not leave my side save
to eat, poop or run up and down the stairs and all around the house
for no reason I can discern.

I am in good and improving health.  I am overcoming physical woes
and getting stronger every day. 

I look at my country and I see hope.  Racism and bigotry are still
around, but they are being beaten back on a daily basis.  The tide
is slowly turning against those who would enrich the very powerful
and very wealthy at the expense of the 99% of the American people
who represent the rest of us.  Why, some folks are even embracing
the obvious truth that an economy that enriches the 1% so much more
than the rest of us is not sustainable.  There are still battles to
be fought, but the tide of history favors the 99%.

I look at our brave soldiers and firefighters and police officers
and public workers and know they will always be there for us, even
when we are not always there for them as much as we should be.  I
am hopeful that someday soon we will reward these good people in a
manner consistent with their great service. 

I am thankful for the blessings and teachings of my Lord and Master
Godzilla, the Great Scaly One who protects us with his fiery atomic
love.  It can be a tough love, especially give the often recorded
folly of man and all, but it is a just love.  As the pastor of the
First Church of Godzilla, I welcome all to share in the bliss I’ve
found from my new faith.  If I can figure out how to cash in on it
the way L. Ron Hubbard did with his made-up religion, I’ll be even
more thankful.

I look back on my years in the comics industry and I am as content
as I can be in an field whose history is basically the history of
villainous executives and corporations cheating creators.  Even so,
I have found that there are clients who can and do act in an honest
and honorable fashion.

I have an appreciative audience for my writings.  I still manage to
find work that is challenging and fun. 

The blessed Internet has allowed me to reconnect with old friends,
keep in touch with my friends and readers, and make new friends and
readers.  Since my blogs about being a special guest at Comic-Con,
my bloggy thing readership has increased considerably and continues
to increase.

I am thankful that some remarkable and wonderful circumstances have
aligned to make it possible for me to start working on my extremely
long bucket list of things I want to write before I kick that old
bucket on my way to my Monster Island Heaven reward.  I expect to
start on several projects in January.

I’m thankful those same remarkable and wonderful circumstances will
allow me to spend a week in Los Angeles visiting old dear friends
and perhaps making new ones.  I don’t have the exact dates beyond
“sometime in January,” but I’m excited.

Several hours after I posted this blog, we’ll be having what I am
sure will be a wonderful Thanksgiving gathering and meal.  Friends
and family will be converging on Casa Isabella and I will doubtless
consume far too much turkey and stuffing.  I will go to bed a happy
bloated man.  I’ll be thankful for the day.  Just as I am thankful
for every day.

I hope all of you have reason to give thanks as well. 

I’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff.

© 2013 Tony Isabella

3 comments:

  1. I'm going to be working today for a few hours today at the Speedway I work parttime at, but I'm making double for the holiday and it's nowhere near as stressful as what's heading for my fellow Subway workers tonight during the pre-Black Friday at Wal-Mart, and then I'm off to have a nice Thanksgiving meal with the in-laws. I'll be ravenously hungry by then, so with proper diabetic meds and a close eye on how much I graze, it should be a good evening. I'm certainly thankful for all the help my sister-in-laws have given us during this last couple of months.

    Deena lost her job at the hospital in one of the most reprehensible moves ever made by a supervisor, so we're just living off my pay at Subway and the part time work at Speedway. With the job loss also came the loss of her health insurance, which couldn't have come at a worse time with how things are concerning the AHCA. Deena's younger sister Brenda, a full time executive nurse, came to our rescue helping us get registered with Volunteers of Medicine so we can continue getting our medications and doctor care, and her youngest sister Teresa is helping us with budgeting down and with our bankruptcy proceedings to eliminate a lot of unmanageable debt. It's meant trimming down a lot of excess, but as it turned out it was all stuff that was needlessly eating our savings away (lots of needless life insurance and auto policies we were able to either dump or dial down). Deena also had PTO time she was able to cash in, over 400+ hours, and that helped us get our bills paid off, car repairs made, put back a little something in our savings, and pay off the lawyer to file our bankruptcy.

    We're not in need of anything right now, Deena's getting the time to recooperate from decades of abuse to her back from the work she was doing while she's looking for work, and she'll be picking up unemployment in just another couple of weeks. As the leader of the Doctor Who club Whoosier Network, it was my honor to ring in the 50th Anniversary episode by hosting the DW party at our local independent movie theater, some of which we video recorded and will be up on my You Tube series "De Boss Rules the World" in a few days. Considering that the theater is located right across the street from where my childhood home once stood where my love of comics and science-fiction and fantasy grew and nurtured (including pretending a big cardboard box was actually a space ship that was much bigger on the inside than it was on the outside, many years before I even heard of Doctor Who), there was just an incredible magic in the air that day. Christmas is coming twice this year.

    I really, really wish you, Barb, and the kids all the best in the world. It sounds like its all heading your way.

    Happy Thanksgiving. Pass the deep-fried cats.

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  2. You have a better and happier life than you ever seriously believed you
    would have?

    Of course you do. Living off a hard working wife must be the greatest! That is, if one doesn't possess an ounce of pride. Does she give you an allowance if you make the bed?

    When was the last time you earned a living wage? The seventies? Never?

    When it comes to Thanksgiving I'm mostly thankful that you're not my father.

    "What does your dad do for a living?"

    "Er, he's died in the war. When I was an infant."

    "Then who's the fat midget selling comic books in your garage?"

    "Oh, him? Er, some homeless dwarf. My mom lets him use the garage."

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  3. And now my wonderful Thanksgiving is complete with a message from the anonymous coward so clearly jealous of my life and too terrified of me to sign his missives. I knew he would comment. It must drive him crazy to know that I am such a happy man.

    All I really know about this guy is that he's from the Cleveland area. I have a few suspects in mind, but it doesn't really matter who he is. He amuses me with his psychotic yet impotent hatred.

    I decided to share his latest message with you, but you don't have to reassure me that he's crazy inaccurate. Believe me, his amazing lack of knowledge and perception screams from every word he writes. So, my friends, take this for what it is, the shrill ravings of a pathetic clown.

    I know I shouldn't take such delight in this guy, but he makes me laugh.

    ReplyDelete