I *AM* giving thanks...

No really.  We've had no heat since - oh, it's the day before yesterday now, and the boiler cunningly chose the moment the weather turned cold to do its Dying Consumptive act.  It's the pump, I've been told, and the pump itself is on the shelf and available, but there'll be extensive re-wiring to take off the wonderful energy-saving device which isn't.  And that can't happen before tomorrow afternoon.

But.  Dammit - I'm grateful that we have a heating system in here, and one that has so many safety cut-offs and lock-downs that it won't go asphyxiating us all or blowing the house up.  Really.  I'm freezing, and have been most of the day, despite having a nice little fire burning in the hearth, but we still have electricity, so there can be hot drinks and hot water bottles, and we have extra wool blankets to toss on top of the duvets, and we usually have central heating, which is a lot more than many.  And, we have a house. 

Furthermore, while I'm remembering the things I'm thankful for, no matter how hard I have to grit my teeth to do it, yesterday afternoon we also lost water.  No warning, nobody to talk to in the county council office, no ring-back from the heeeelp number...  But, as I trotted off to the pharmacy, fretting more than ever, I spotted corporation men at the end of the road, and accosted them.  Apparently, they'd turned the water off to see where it would - er, turn off, because they'd need to advise people affected that they were going to lose water.  Hey - this shouldn't be an arcane science - surely the water division has a pretty good idea what supplies which houses?  But.  We have clean running water.

One of the reasons the boiler repair man couldn't come and do the work today is that the guy who works with him has two children, both seriously ill at the moment.  One has Type 1 diabetes and is really in bad shape with it now, and the other has a tumor on his bowel.  My deeply illogical  (and unfaithful) jinx-avoidance nature makes it hard for me to say, but as far as I know, my two are relatively healthy - hell, they're alive, for which I'm deeply grateful.  The accounts from Bangladesh...

I was on the train this afternoon, doing my beta-reading and hit a section of story I'd been anticipating with growing dread for some time -- with reason.  I didn't quite lose it publicly, but it was close.  And I'm not grateful at all that the bad things happened to the characters I'd come to care about, but I'm so grateful for the writer, who's given us these characters.  And I'm grateful for all writers - well, all right, even in soppy mode I'm not going to be *totally* grateful for some of them.  But for writers, and books and the ability to read and the leisure and affluence to be able to enjoy all of those - big time thanks.

Finally, another temporary loss which might make you wonder if I'm making this all up, but now would I do that?  [Pause for the 'no' I'm expecting hoping for]  All right, I'll supply it - no, I wouldn't.  Lost internet connection last night.   And while many of us users have good reason to appreciate the internet, I'd have to be on the high end of that spectrum, and I don't (often) forget it. 

For now though, my hands are too numb to keep wittering on about my gratitude, books, or anything else.  Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating it, and happy Thursday the 22nd to the others.