Each year since moving to St. George in 2009, my wife Deb and I compose and send to relatives and friends a "Thanksgiving Thankful List" covering the preceding year. Below are parts of our lists since 2009.

Each year since moving to St. George in 2009, my wife Deb and I compose and send to relatives and friends a "Thanksgiving Thankful List" covering the preceding year. Below are parts of our lists since 2009. 1. Great shopping carts. In Santa Barbara, Calif., (from whence we came) the stupid carts always had one wheel that was stuck or the bearings were shot and all you could do was push it in a circle around the periphery of the store. We are thankful that in St. George the shopping carts in the stores are tricked out — polished chrome, wheels aligned and working properly, and they easily slide out of the row. It's a beautiful thing. 2. The dead. We are thankful for all the dead Native Americans who left hundreds of petroglyph sites scattered around the immense Mojave Desert (St. George is the northernmost edge of the Mojave Desert). We have been fortunate to hike to and see many of these sites. And we are thankful for all the dead dinosaurs that, along with their dead buddies and plants, left us a legacy of fossil fuels that enable a place like St. George to exist and prosper. And for their footprints and fossil bones throughout southern Utah. 3. I am thankful for James Naismith (a Canadian of all things) who invented basketball in 1891. Without basketball I would not have had the opportunity to participate in the "Hot Shot" basketball shooting competition at the Huntsman World Senior Games the past two years and embarrass myself. But, the silver lining is that I have incentive to practice one hour three times a week for next year. 4. We are thankful for our new addition to the family, Molly the cat. She joined us as an 8-week-old kitten in March. She has been a joy — tons of energy, always smiling and purring, acting goofy and relentlessly bugging her big brother — Dave the Wonder Cat, a 2-year old, 12-pound orange tabby (who graciously has not bitten off her head). 5. We are thankful for the ancient supernovas that created and spewed iron throughout this sector of the Milky Way Galaxy, coalescing (with all the other elements and compounds) to form the Earth. After billions of years of erosion and many geological cycles this iron in sandstone weathered, turned red and created the beautiful red rocks in southern Utah. 6. We are thankful for the extension of human longevity during the last 100 years. If this were not the case we would not be in the seniors bowling league (or seniors would be defined as those 35 and older and we would most likely be dead by now). Without being in the league we would not have met bowling phenoms and nice folks such as Charlie and Dee — the two other members of our team. 7. We are thankful for whoever invented money — instead of pretty rocks, we now lug around some pretty paper and small metallic disks. Makes life much easier. We hope you remember the many things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Tom Garrison is retired.