This is goodbye and thank you. Thank you for:

• Allowing me to live and work in Jacksonville, where I enjoyed sunny skies, sparkling winters, smooth roads, sandy beaches, beautiful golf courses, financial gain, new friends, a new lifestyle and a home my family loves.
• Providing a work place that shimmered in teal against the blue background of the St. Johns River.
• The Jaguars, who I watched grow from their birth to the sweet age of 16 super seasons. I wouldn't trade any of them.
• Readers that always made me want to do my best work.
• The thrill of game day.
• Fred, Mark, Tony, Jimmy, Keenan, Leon and one of the best offenses I've ever covered.
• The upset win in Denver and the late-night fly-by.
• Making "Ask Vic" a source of pride.
• 14-2.
• 1996.
• Listening to the radio shows.
• Watching the videos.
• All those great games against the Steelers.
• Liking the Oklahoma drill as much as I do.
• Saying hello at training camp.
• Sharing with me in "Ask Vic" sensitive, heartfelt stories that touched me and made me realize the column had become something more than a place to ask questions and get answers.
• Making the day of the "Ask Vic" golf tournament my favorite day of the year.
• Buying tickets and supporting the Jaguars. You will not regret it, I promise.
• Not hating me for leaving you.
• Being so close to Georgia and South Carolina. I really love this little corner of the country.
• 2007.
• Laughing at the asterisk.
• All the military people I've met.
• My colleagues in the media, from Vito and Gene to Frangie and Lamm and everyone in between. I'm media and I like media.
• Pete Prisco.
• Bobby Martin and Carl Cannon at The Times-Union. They called me their "bud" when I didn't have one.
• Baptist Medical Center, which twice saved my life.
• The Baptist Cancer Institute nurses that told me losing my hair made me look younger.
• The view of the St. Johns River I enjoyed every day as I crossed the Hart Bridge. By my calculations, I crossed that bridge nearly 10,000 times.
• Saving the whale. Do not let him die.
• The questions that wrote my column.
• That gorgeous day in January of 1995, when I came to Jacksonville to interview for a job and instantly knew this was the place for me.
• Every second of the last 16 years of my life.

-30-