From The Chief Editor's Desk...

I’m sitting here on Thanksgiving morning writing this, while my wife is at work at the hospital (we’ll have our traditional Thanksgiving dinner on the day after the “official” Thanksgiving Day holiday). In the U.S., we are urged to reflect on the things in our lives that we are thankful for during the Thanksgiving holiday. So, that’s the direction I’m going to go with this month’s “From The Chief Editor’s Desk” column.

I’m thankful for the family that my wife and I have created. We weren’t even sure we’d be able to have kids. We went through seven years of infertility before Ryan came along. After having a couple of meetings with “fertility experts,” we discovered that “fertility treatments” were something WAY outside our budget. We managed to find an OB/Gyn doctor who felt confident that he could restore my wife’s fertility status. By this point, we were actually exploring (and starting the paperwork for) a state-sponsored adoption. And then, soon after meeting with this doctor and meeting with the other doctor he referred us to for a consultation (and a few procedures later), we found out we were expecting.

For my daughter Lexi, we didn’t do anything. We weren’t actively trying, but we also weren’t doing anything to prevent a pregnancy. Three years to the day after discovering we were expecting Ryan, we found out we were pregnant again.

These kids are a true blessing in our lives, and we are truly thankful for them.

I’m thankful for PCLinuxOS, and all the PCLinuxOS friends I’ve made over the years. Like many people, I was a “Windows refugee.” The last full version of Windows I used was Windows XP. I was what many would call a WinXP “power user,” customizing everything possible to get it to run the way I wanted. When Vista came out, I saw it as an unmitigated disaster. None of my computers, which I had just purchased within the previous two years, possessed the hardware specs to run Vista, so I was going to be “left behind.” I knew there had to be something better out there, so I restarted my Linux journey (which had previously flopped). After a bit of distro hopping, I discovered PCLinuxOS. It was the ONLY distro among the dozen or so that I had tried that recognized all of my hardware on the initial installation. I was hooked. I had found my new OS to replace the aging Windows XP. The rest is, as they say, history. I joined the PCLinuxOS forum, met a LOT of friendly folks, and made lots of friends in the PCLinuxOS community. I’ve never looked back.

Oh, I’m also thankful for many other things. In fact, there’s way too many to list here, but let’s try to hit the highlights. I’m thankful for relatively good health. I’m thankful for having such a wonderful wife. I’m thankful for retirement, especially when I hear the horror stories of the stuff my wife has to deal with at work (she’s also a respiratory therapist). I’m very thankful for being able to be (in retirement) a “stay-at-home dad,” always able to be there for my kids on a daily basis. I’m thankful for the relatively comfortable life I lead, with a house and all of the things I need. There are a lot of folks a whole lot worse off than I am.

This month’s cover is a composite of a few different images assembled to make the final image. The main image of Santa Claus is from Pixabay artist Gerd Altman. The wreath is an image from Pixabay artist Dianne. The PCLinuxOS logo (of course) I already had. I assembled them together, and thought they made a nice holiday themed cover just for PCLinuxOS.

Until next month, I bid you peace, happiness, serenity, prosperity, and continued good health. Oh … and Happy Holidays!