Thanksgiving

I was going to do a Thanksgiving, then and now, BLOG, but decided there are enough Thanksgiving "then" past postings in Runnemede Remembered that I would just opine in my "Fat Lady" BLOG.  First, I want to begin with a short statement, "The Fat Lady is getting thinner, not much, but some."

Now, to Thanksgiving present.

I'm sorry, but this might not be so "happy" as in "Happy Thanksgiving" but nor have the past 10 or so Thanksgivings. 

When I realized about 10 years ago that family Thanksgivings were a thing of the past in my husband's and my life, we tried to take a vacation during that week.  We even went on a Thanksgiving cruise.  The turkey option at dinner was not very good, I'm afraid.  So even that Thanksgiving was sort of blah.  The other years we've not been enjoying a meal with friends and family, and that is not of our choice.  We've just not been invited to participate. 

I don't want anyone to feel sorry for us.  I've felt sorry enough for us except for the vacation years when there was something other than Thanksgiving to occupy my mind. 

I have to insert here that my DIL has invited us to dinner on Thanksgiving on several occasions, but we have been away during those years, and my daughter has invited us to join her and her husband's family, but I really haven't feel comfortable imposing on their Thanksgiving.

This year, a friend who was to be alone on Thanksgiving as were Alan and I, was invited to shared Thanksgiving with us.  I made a turkey dinner with almost all the trimmings.  I didn't make mashed potatoes, but I did make mashed sweet potatoes -- a dish with contains sweet potatoes, maple syrup, butter, and spices. 

I worked for a week slowly and did what I could each day in the approximately four hours of relatively pain free time my body permits, and got it all accomplished.  On the actual DAY I only had to prepare and stuff the turkey, and warm up a few cassarole dishes, and we were set to go.  One thing though, I forgot to salt (or season as the TV chefs call it) the turkey.

Let me tell you, an unseasoned bird isn't very good.  However, the gravy was well seasoned and that helped some.  The left over turkey was saturated with leftover gravy, which I didn't thicken too much so it didn't congeal. 

My friend, Alan, and I had a blessed time.  The food really was good.  And by 4:00 p.m. after our friend left, Alan and I were snoring away, and I didn't get up until the next morning.

I find I'm still sleeping a lot even though my knee surgeries were almost a year ago.  I wonder if maybe the long sleeping times aren't because I'm getting older, and we older folks need more sleep, like babies.  We start out sleeping a long time, then when we're teenagers we sleep a lot, in our twenties through our forties we sleep little, then we gradually add sleep to our daily routine until we are in our dotage at which time, we nod off as soon as we sit in a comfortable chair.

I hope you all had a Happy and blessed Thanksgiving.  I know we did.

ttfn

On the road again

Alan and I have had a wonderful time at Tybee Island, GA.  The weather, even when Sandy was churning up the coast was still not bad.  The waves were magnificent, but we had no rain, just lots of wind.  I guess SHE was saving up the rain/snow for the northern coast. 

I remember the 1962 storm which took out whole towns along the Jersey coast.  The current governor is too young to remember that event, and the POTUS was just a toddler.  The devastation along the coast is reminiscent of that '62 storm.  It's not unusual for Jersey to get one or two of those kinds of storms in a century.

When I was a little over a year old I do remember a hurricane (1944) and daddy got out kerosene lamps and a small kerosene heater and we sat in the kitchen with the gas oven on for heat as well as the kerosene heater.   I really do remember sitting in the kitchen and all of a sudden, "THUMP".  A tree went down, but missed the house.  Then right on the heals of "THUMP" number one, we heard another "THUMP".  Tree number two went down.  That was all we had to lose in the back yard.  Fortunately the wind was blowing away from the house, church, and garage.  That year the Jersey coast was destroyed also. 

But, once again, I digress.

Yes, Alan and I are on the road again.  Our last trip for the year.  We'll be home in a couple of days, and my daughter will have to return to her home.  I hope she's had a blessed time in the condo.

I want to get a time share down here.  They are going for $905 dollars.  Can you imagine?  25 years ago they cost around $10,000.  But Alan says, "No thanks." 

I thought I was dead for a couple of days earlier this week.  I had absolutely no pain whatsoever in my legs or arms or shoulders or neck or anywhere on my body.  But after four days of pain-freeness I was knocked to the ground again.  I'm coming out of it now, I think.  I have been exercising like mad to ward off the charlie-horses that are common to me because of fibromyalgia.  I was hoping I had found a formula to rid myself of the pain, but apparently I didn't.   Well, at least I know I'm not dead yet because there will be no pain in heaven.

God was good to give me a few days of respite.  I pray he will once again bless me with deliverance and freedom from the pain. 

FYI, my knees are feeling great, no pain there.  Now, I'm ready to get to today's morning exercises and stretching which seems to help some.

ttfn