It made me feel good to know that thousands of other state residents don’t like and don’t want to receive telephone calls from any business doing solicitations by phone. The response is to a new telemarketing law allowing residents to call the state department of consumer protection and get on a “no ecells” list. Beginning January 1 no one can legally call such persons to make telephone solicitations. Violators face a $5,000 fine, civil penalties, and up to $25,000 if they violate a restraining order.

William Ward of the Enforcement Agency said in less than a week 10,000 calls were received and they kept calling at the rate of about 2,000 a day. Hooray!

With all the dissatisfaction being voiced, printed, and aired about the election results we feel somewhat discouraged. It hasn’t been the country’s best week, but it will severely be resolved to the likes of many of us and the dislikes of many others. Perhaps there will be a strong determination on behalf of everyone to stand ready and consider whatever attempts are made to assure that such distraction will be better handled in the future. It has been spelled out by example, how really important a vote can be. Will everyone remember this when the next election takes place?

Turning in a different direction, we have so much to be thankful for, as a nation, a state or town, or an individual. It is a good time to think about the small things to be thankful for; sunshine and whipped cream clouds; the brightness of the Hunter’s moon; the cheerfulness of one or one hundred chickadees that visit our yards; the rhythmic honking of a flock of geese passing overhead in a “V” formation; many friendships; a favorite melody coming from the airwaves to give a few minutes of special pleasure; the smile of a child that presents a special paper with a special mark, to a special parent; the expectant look on the face of the pet dog as you reach for the leash to go for a walk; or the purr of a cat that has settled in your lap in the evening.

Hundreds of other small pleasures can beget more special thanks – the full bloom on a houseplant you have tended for a long time; the smell and then the taste of home baked bread fresh from the oven; the letter in your mailbox from a long absent friend; the “thanks Mom” or “thanks Dad” from a teenager acknowledging a favor. You could easily add a hundred more things to be thankful for.

The family line that ended last week’s column are from Edgar A. Guest’s poem, “Home.” who said, “A verbal contract isn’t worth the paper its written on”?