Different But Good.....

Thanksgiving 2020 is now history. Many families, used to gathering together, celebrated in a much smaller way. Much smaller.

Our day was broken into two parts......we enjoyed pie for lunch (four selections!) in Megan and Mike's back yard with three dogs and our teenage grandsons.

At one point Megan said to me "I don't want this to become an annual tradition at all....but I am proud of us that we came up with a way to be together and make a memory!" And I agreed.

I have so many memories of Thanksgivings. All the years while I was growing up when we gathered with my cousins at Gramma and Grampa's house up on a small lake near Antioch, Illinois. Gramma's pies, that huge traditional meal, a walk through the country to digest! Other Thanksgivings after Dave and I were married.....my mom and sister flying out to our first house in New Jersey, or years we shared the day with our New Hampshire friends or the two years that we celebrated while living on our sailboat. Some Thanksgivings were shared with Dave's mom and his side of the family in Massachusetts. Terrific holidays spent at my cousin's farmhouse in Indiana with a big crowd gathered from all over the country. Looking back I realize that our Thanksgiving holidays were pretty "flexible" and each has a place in my memory bank.

This year our day ended with dinner for two....turkey and vegetable ordered from a nearby restaurant and a few sides prepared at home. Dinner for two set at our dining room table instead of the way we eat most of our dinners using TV trays while watching "Jeopardy".

A little odd.....a nice tablecloth and dishes at one end and a puzzle-in-the-works on the other end. 

Thanksgiving 2020.....unique.

Blow Out the Candles......

Every few years my birthday would fall on Thanksgiving and I used to "tease" my kids and say the United States was celebrating ME.

This year I woke to a rainy/grey day November 24th and I didn't feel very festive....in fact I've gotten to the point where I'd rather just skip the fact that the date means I am another year older. But, on the other hand, I can celebrate that I am another year older!

Our day was quiet, Dave, Fenway and me just doing normal type stuff.....until 8:00 p.m. central time. Then it really did suddenly feel like a birthday party. My daughter and sister got the idea and Megan hosted a Zoom Party....the computer screen lit up with much-loved faces from Florida to Alaska, New Hampshire, Cape Cod and Washington to Wisconsin, Chicago to Milwaukee. About a dozen "squares" zooming at me from all around the Country. It was such crazy, sort-of-unorganized fun! There was a best friend whose known me since third grade and others that have become good friends since we moved to Wisconsin. There was my freshman college roommate and the best friend I met while we lived in Delaware.  My kids with their spouses and our grandkids lit up screens with smiles. I had the fun of "introducing" each of them and remembering where we met so they could get to know each other. A screen full of people who help make my life good and full and fun.

The zoom-time made my birthday really special and I quickly realized that this kind of party would never have happened during a normal year. Distances would be way to great for all these family members and friends to gather to sing Happy Birthday to ME! 

Darn....I wish I'd thought to take a picture of the screen! 

Deflate the Balloon......

It's been weeks since American's either mailed in their ballots or went to the polls and filled them out. The choice of President of the United States is a clear one....both if you count the popular vote or the electoral college results. And I understand that a huge number of citizens are disappointed in the results because "their guy" didn't prevail. So they can imagine just how many of us felt when we woke up in 2016 to find out who would be walking into the White House after inauguration day in January 2017.

But now I wish that the news on TV, radio, newspaper, social media would just stop covering and re-covering 45's attempts to say "NO!! It was ME!! I WON!!"

My suggestion is that all of the reporters just stop reporting oh him...take the air out of his balloon. If he walks out into the rose garden to stand behind a podium all the reporters should just get up, turn their backs and walk away. When 45's pretty little blond press secretary walks in to give a briefing they should all stand up, turn their backs and just walk away. When 45 leaves the oval office to go play another round of golf stop sending any photographers to clip pictures of him "maybe" talking to some world leader on the cell phone.

Just stop. Don't feed any oxygen to this fire. Just stop.

Turn all of your attention to the President Elect and his work to bring order to the transition of power. Turn  the reporting and cameras in a direction that matters.

Stop covering 45 and move on to 46.

Another Opportunity......

Anyone who knows me knows that I spend a lot of time sitting at my sewing machine. I am usually involved with a new quilting project because that's one of my favorite things to do. But I used to make memory bears for hospice and I've made a few memory quilts for friends or neighbors. I make small colorful baby quilts for area hospital NICUs and that always makes me feel good.

Yesterday there was a post on my Facebook page asking if anyone could make or donate scarves or hats (gently used or new) and I thought "I can do that." So off to the store to buy some fleece....and today I drop about 40 scarves off in Cedarburg. Soon they will go to homeless Vets in our area. A little enough effort on my part to help some folks find a little warmth this winter.

A pile of fleece on my carpet, but one by one I hope they wrap around someone's neck and help just a little. These didn't even require any sewing, but still, I felt good making them. It's an anonymous way to reach out and "touch" someone....the least I can do.

Southbound......

It was Dave's turn to take Fenway for a nice long walk and his nature adventure was much better than mine earlier in the day. He said he heard what he thought were geese flying overhead......four big groups heading south, one after another.

But the "honking" was wrong and when he spotted them and their long necks he realized these were sandhill cranes. We always see a few pairs in our area starting in the spring and we enjoy watching them as their chicks arrive and grow. I've seen a few flying overhead since we moved to Port but never as many as Dave spotted yesterday.

Sigh.....well today I saw at least three dozen merganzers in our harbor and over by the electric plant so I will be satisfied with that! Migration season....smart birds southbound.....

Later In the Month.....

Thanksgiving is just around the corner. In some ways this year has gone by in a flash.....and in others it feels like the days crawl by. But here we are in mid-November with 2021 coming at us fast. I feel hopeful for this new year......concerned still.....but hopeful. Like everyone I know Dave and I hope to get back to something approaching a more "normal" existence. Or rather a new normal.

We won't be part of a gathering this year to share turkey and all the sides. It will be just the two of us sharing the day with Fenway. I told Dave I would not be cooking so we've ordered turkey, gravy and a good veggie from a nice restaurant near us. I will do my cousin's recipe for cranberry sauce and Dave does want to do his smashed potatoes but in-the-kitchen time will be very, very short. It just isn't as much fun to prepare all the traditional things for only the two of us.

I'm already preparing myself to feel sort of "low" for the holiday....and then I pull myself up short and try to even begin to list all the things for which I am thankful. It's a long list.

As I walked past the pile of eight baby quilts sitting in the dining room they helped me to realize that I am fortunate this year. November 16th after more than eight months of semi-quarantine and social distancing and only seeing friends at outdoor gatherings, our little family and all of our closest friends are OK. (Knock wood.) Some days I feel like we are dodging bullets.....but so far, we are dodging.

These eight quilts will be dropped off at area hospitals to cover isolets in the NICU's. Eight babies who need special care and won't be home for awhile....or at all. Eight families not as fortunate as mine.

So I will  look at this colorful pile and I will, once again, remind myself to just "buckle up buttercup" and stop my interior and exterior complaining.

Revealed.......

We walk out the door of our condo's foyer and make a few quick right turns to take Fenway up the bike path. Within minutes we are surrounded by trees, a hill on one side and a creek running on the other. It just feels like an easy way to walk in the woods....and we almost always spot some kind of wildlife.

The trees have dropped almost all of their leaves now so the walk is a little less colorful. The surroundings don't seem as "soft" as when the trees are full and the breeze flips their leaves this way and that. It's more winter-y already.

Yesterday, after his walk, Dave came in with a photo on his phone.

This was hanging right above his head at the tree just at the start of the path. We've been walking beneath it for months......never noticed any activity. The nest really is fascinating to look at. I don't know much about wasps (other than I prefer to avoid them) but assume they are dormant inside the structure until next spring? Quietly waiting warmer weather again. 

I have to wonder just how big this grey nest will get?

 

Flash Dancing......

We are still enjoying an amazing stretch of warm November weather in Wisconsin...76 degrees today!! It is a pleasure to take Fenway out for his walks in the neighborhood. The other day we went to Rotary Park and there must have been 100 gulls and terns flying and diving into the water. The flash and dance of their wings as they zipped and zoomed, then curved one way or another was beautiful. They were diving for small alewives and most every trip down into the water was a success. The birds called and flew and dove....over and over.

For our afternoon walk I had my cell phone and we just meandered a few blocks to the now-empty marina and the birds were back. The afternoon light again highlighted the wild, raucous activity.  Without a good camera it was impossible for me to catch the way the light reflected off the white undersides of the birds' wings but it was flashy.

The activity gave me a reason, once again, to stop and look at "my" Lake Michigan. She's a beauty and never disappoints. Today the birds' flash dance added the exclamation point!

New Seating Arrangement......

It's Wednesday, November 4th....the day after election day and we are waiting final results. Who will be our new President and what kind of turmoil will occur between that announcement and inauguration day? It's been an exhausting campaign and frankly an exhausting four years.

I was talking to a friend the other day remembering years when there was more cooperation in our Congress and members actually "reached across the aisle" to come to agreement about what was best for our Country. Remember that??? I'm sure there was always discussion and disagreement but still....there was bipartisan cooperation. Really....there was.

She and I were talking about how to "fix" this....experts that we are....and came up with what I think is a pretty workable idea. When you look at a photo of the chamber for the House of Representatives you will notice that the desks are literally separated by a center aisle. Wikipedia told me that "by tradition, Democrats sit on the left of the center aisle, while Republicans sit on the right, facing the presiding officer's chair." What about if the representatives from each state were simply seated alphabetically by their last name. (Remember when that used to be the procedure in grade school classrooms?) I checked the list of names for the current representatives and quickly realized that if you did seat them alphabetically they would be all mixed up.....Wyoming might sit next to Connecticut on one side and have Alabama on the other. California might sit behind Maine and in front of Louisiana. Party affiliation would have nothing to do with seating arrangement.

Hmmmmm.....now maybe, just maybe, that would foster conversations and discussions that would not happen otherwise. Maybe these elected officials might accidentally find things they could agree upon! They would be "forced" to be civil to one another so maybe there wouldn't be as much name calling and finger pointing. Maybe, just maybe, they would begin to work better together and there wouldn't be hundreds of bills just sitting in committee or on someone's desk. Maybe, just maybe the work of the government would get done more smoothly and we would all benefit.

I think I'll write to my Wisconsin Representatives and then my Senators to suggest the same thing for that chamber.

Boys and girls....change to alphabetical seating and work together dammit.

The Day of the Dead.....

I've been feeling a need to find other "communities" to share time with as I see winter coming. When we lived in Bay View we belonged to the Unitarian Universalist Church on the east side......and on Sundays I've been feeling a need to maybe reconnect with a congregation. This continuing pandemic doesn't make it easy to do this. But the UU Church in Mequon has on-line services so I've zoomed in for three weeks just to listen and to get my brain to ponder something outside "myself". 

This morning the sermon followed a video of people celebrating the Day of the Dead in Mexico. I was slightly familiar with the holiday but the short Youtube video documentary that started the hour was fascinating. The minister's remarks were also thoughtful and made me think about the people I love who are no longer with me. The minister said that Day of the Dead celebrations involve families taking food to the cemeteries and sharing a meal while sitting at the side of their loved one's grave. They leave small amounts of favorite foods behind on the tombstones. He told a short story about an American asking "How long do you think it will be until they come back to eat the food?" The response was something like "About the same amount of time until your loved one comes back to smell the flowers you left at their grave." It's just a different tradition....and a way of remembering good times past.

I sat in front of the computer screen and wondered about why the service seemed to touch a cord for me today. And then I remembered.  My mom and my mother-in-law both died about ten years ago, each on the night of a full moon....and last night was a rare blue moon. The second full moon this month.

Whenever I walk outside and glance up to see a full moon I immediately think of both of them....I guess this month I had two chances to celebrate the day of my dead.