Somers: 37 things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, including patience, gravy and shadows

I’m thankful for more than 37 things, of course, but a cutoff had to be made somewhere.

You might be wondering: Why 37 and not 38, or 35? Have a thing for prime numbers?

No, but marriage and a job brought me to Arizona 37 years ago, so the number seemed appropriate. So, here we go, in no particular order.

1.I still have the aforementioned wife.

2. I still have the aforementioned job.

3. High school sports and other extracurricular activities. All three of our kids played and made life-long friends. Two of my daughter’s former basketball teammates helped with her wedding this fall. A sport brought them together.

4. Our three kids, who aren’t kids anymore. They are good people and smart. The staff guidance counselor/teacher/wife is largely responsible for this. I’m the only one in our family without a graduate degree, and this will remain so.

5. Gravy season. We have entered it. It’s wise to practice moderation in all things, including moderation. For one day, load up, and make a swimming pool of gravy in the middle of your mashed potatoes. No self-loathing allowed.

6. A 4-year-old’s soccer games. Our granddaughter was more enthralled with her shadow than kicking a soccer ball during a recent game. Or even running. She dipped chocolate chip pancakes in ketchup at the post-game meal.

7. Shadows.

8. Post-game meals.

9. Patience. I have some now, at least occasionally. My kids probably think it’s funny that I now find kids playing with shadows during a soccer game funny. When my kids were kids, let’s just say I would have re-directed their attention to the game. Live and learn.

10. Our three grandchildren and the one on the way.

11. Devin Booker’s pre-game routine. It’s worth showing up to a Suns game early to see.

12. Cameron Payne’s jump shot. It’s odd. It’s defiant and it’s kind of cool. No coach would ever teach a kid to basically turn sideways to the basket and lead with the shooting shoulder. But I remember going to a basketball camp where a coach asked us if we knew what a good shot was. The one that goes in, he said.

13. Newspaper subscribers.

14. Digital subscribers.

15. Readers who write polite e-mails, even when they disagree with me. Because there’s a good number of people out there whose default reaction is to call names. Nasty ones sometimes. And female columnists and those of color see and hear far worse than I do.

16. Friends who invite you over for Thanksgiving and also welcome your kids and their friends. No problem. They just make the table bigger, literally. Some years, it’s looked like a train or a dominoes game.

17. Players and coaches who let their guards down a bit in interviews. Cardinals cornerback Antonio Hamilton, for example, told reporters recently that he and his wife had the birth of their son scheduled for the bye week. It’s the first time I’ve heard an athlete use the term “membrane stripping.” Hamilton also was asked if the players were a little more upbeat after a win. “Vitamin W is always good,” he said.

18. Traveling. I’ve covered Cardinals games in London and now Mexico City. I don’t know that I would have visited either if I didn’t have this job.

19. That I was around to cover Cardinals training camp when it was in Flagstaff. The fans had more access to players. The weather was close to perfect. The setting was charming. All of that is missing at State Farm Stadium.

20. The people who make it possible for football to be played on Thanksgiving Day. They give up time with family so we have something to watch. Like gravy makers, they are essential workers on Thanksgiving.

21. That we can even gather with friends and family. We all remember what it was like when we couldn’t.

22. That people such as Cardinals safety Budda Baker choose to play football. It’s not good for your health, yet Baker plays as if he has no regard for his body. He’s another in a long line of tough Cardinals safeties: Larry Wilson, Tim McDonald, Kwamie Lassiter, Pat Tillman and Adrian Wilson to name a few.

23. My parents. They both turn 90 this spring and they enjoy nothing more than attending my niece’s junior high basketball games, just as they did mine and my siblings. My mom almost always calls me afterward to report on the game. “She made good passes,” is a nice way of saying her shots weren’t falling.

24. That my dad chose to join the Navy out of high school. He knew the GI Bill was the only way he could afford to go to college one day. That decision changed generations.

25. The Arizona Republic gave me a part-time, 29-hour-a-week job in 1985, covering high schools, junior colleges and anything else that happened in sports in the Northwest part of the Valley.

26. That a year or so later, a full-time writer left to sell insurance and I replaced him.

27. It didn’t seem so at the time because it meant working on a holiday, but looking back, it was pretty neat that a bowl game featuring junior colleges used to be played every Thanksgiving.

28. That I’ve had the opportunity to cover some unique characters. Bill Frieder. Buddy Ryan.  Bob Ferguson. Dennis Green. Darnell Dockett. Bruce Arians. It was almost always fun, and when it wasn’t, it was at least interesting.

29. That I’ve worked with some talented reporters who became friends.

30. That a bunch of us get together every year near the anniversary of former Republic writer Steve Schoenfeld’s death to laugh, tell stories and to catch up. Steve, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver in 2000, would have loved working the room.

31. The Diamondbacks didn’t stink last season.

32. That the weather is cooler and we can open up the house now and actually enjoy sitting on the patio.

33. Power washers because my patio is a mess.

34. For another fair election, even if it’s taking more time than we want to count every vote.

35. For the Hallmark Channel, which has shown America what a lot of us knew all along: the smartest guy in town runs the Christmas Tree lot. I’m not sure what he does the rest of the year, however.

36. For college football being played at least five nights a week.

37. For the insight of smart people. I recently asked a Tillman Scholar, Bernard Toney, Jr., what we could learn from Tillman: “If we all had that level of selfless service and love for one another the world will be a much better place. And I think he left that legacy, that mark, for us to be able to try to reach.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Somers: My reasons to be thankful include gravy, parents and shadows