over the river

Short week now here with the stress of the gathering of food and the clan. Turkey Day in my mind, has long been a day of just incredible boredom and disruption. It has long been a day of basic misery to me, full of obligations, expectations, and feelings of guilt for any noncompliance. By tradition, it generally has required someone travel a long distance, which tends to ruin a usually nice day or weekend, to wolf down a huge amount of food at a weird time of day. It also required someone working their butt off for a week to make the traditional spread happen and then having to spend the time cleaning the mess up. Is has been about eating mounds of casseroles and green beans to a painful level and then some. Its about getting kissed by dry lips of ancient women, listening to all the annually repeated family stories followed by the journey home of the equally long and boring opposite direction, while trying to digest all that with the scent of the aftershave and powders of the old ones traveling with me.

Now all those folks, those grandparents, those faces, those stories that made up my childhood memories of Turkey Day, are gone. The things that once seemed so annoying, and so ridiculous to me, and so eternal in their pattern were really fleeting and ephemeral. I am wondering just how many more Turkey Days will I have to share with my aging parents, and with my husband and kids. Such a stupid holiday devoted to the gorging on a dumb bird and how absolutely precious it is to share it one more time. This year, I will appreciate it all.

On another note, the wonder dog, Jack sends thanks for all the kind remarks that were sent. He has had a very nice and pleasant week inside the house. For a first, he doesn't reek of some dead thing that he hasn't gotten to roll on that gives him that special odor that sets him apart. That is good, for us. Not for him. The fissure in the roof of his mouth is healing nicely and the bleeding toenail is healed as well. Perhaps with another day or two of not hitting the goodies at the barn and chewing sticks and staying on the canned dog food, then life can go back to normal for him. Poor puppy. I can see that the imposed inability to supplement on his part has had good effect. There is a definite waist line to be seen on the boy. Jack has got a pretty good wiggle going now. I am sure this svelte outline will be temporary as he is already scratching at the door to follow the pack to the barn where all the delicacies await his undiscerning pallet. And too, there are all the nice Turkey Day scraps coming up.

So over the river and through the woods....have a nice one.