Saturday, November 27, 2021

I Have Returned ...

(Source)
... from New Hampshire that is. (Nothing nearly as dramatic as MacArthur's return to the Philippines, I'd be back in one of the landing craft, probably searching for the general's corncob pipe, ya know how those ossifers rely on us enlisted swine to keep 'em organized.)

It was a good holiday, rather on a smaller scale than past years, five of us as opposed to a baker's dozen or so. Some of the tribe was up in Maine with the new babies which qualified the Olde Vermonter and Mrs. Old Vermonter to claim the title of grandparent. Twins, a boy and a girl born to my niece City Girl and her man, a fellow who needs a call sign I suppose at some point.

Anyhoo, we want out to an inn in the wee town of Chester, Vermont, where they did a rather nice buffet in past years. But this year, due to the Wu Flu I suppose, the meals were ordered off a menu, a number of Thanksgiving choices being available, though to my surprise, no ham. Oh well, it was turkey I was after anyway.

Meal was really, really good. Breast of turkey done to perfection, mashed taters, whole berry cranberry sauce, and a potpourri of root vegetables which went perfectly with everything else. For dessert there was a choice of pumpkin pie, apple crisp, and chocolate mousse. Yes, I know what you're asking, could you get all three?

No.

And more's the pity, but we did have a pumpkin pie, which The Missus Herself and Your Humble Scribe had hauled up from Little Rhody, back at Mom's house. Which we had sampled the evening before (and which I sampled again during the Buffalo-New Orleans game).

Well sated we were.

What? What did I drink? The non-traditional Von Trapp Bohemian Pilsner was my choice of beverage. A bit hoppy for a pilsner but it went down well. (What, you didn't know that the Familie von Trapp emigrated to Vermont after the filming of The Sound of Music before World War II? Well, now you know.)

The trip to the Fullerton Inn is a new tradition in the family, no one wants to do all that cooking on Thanksgiving, and I don't blame 'em. This is the third time we've been there for Turkey Day. It has been, and remains, a neat thing to do. No doubt we'll continue doing this as long as the matriarch still lives. I hope for many more years, but at 91 she's starting to slow down. Not sure how much longer this new tradition will last.

Time moves along, whether we want it to or not.

You may note that I have been pretty absent over the past three days. No internet at Mom's house, damn weak cell phone signal as well. It's kinda nice in some ways, but I did feel rather disconnected. Some of you like that, I don't. I need to be in touch with the far flung enterprise which is my family. We literally stretch from sea to shining sea.

But I'm back and looking forward to Christmas, a trip to Maryland is in the cards once more. The new grandson is quite a prospering young fellow, talking up a storm and curious as the day is long. Can't wait to interact with the little guy in person again.

I shall keep you posted.

It's good to be home.



36 comments:

  1. Sounds lovely Sarge.

    I have to admit that “non-traditional Thanksgivings” like you have described (someone else doing all the cooking), different foods (we have cooked salmon for years now), or even just all going to be together have become more interesting to me. Spending time together is the important thing, not necessarily what we eat.

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    1. It is the time spent together that matters.

      Especially if there's pie.

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  2. Welcome back (yawwwn) to the (scratch scratch) connected world (blink blink) Sarge. Just leftovers around here.

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    1. The difference being is that I can get more than one bar here. Of course, back home there is only one bar, don't know how they fit everyone into it!

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  3. Sounds like a great Thanksgiving - we also went to a restaurant and had an elderly lady friend of ours accompany us. She's almost 90 and lives in a retirement home, so it was good to get her out and about.

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    1. My Mom was happy to get out and about, she doesn't go out much these days.

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  4. Welcome back!

    I loved visiting my mom’s old place in Vermont. No cell signal, dialup maybe yielded 24.4 Kb. I’d walk in the woods with a .44 (it was deer season) and read.

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    1. I remember well the calm and quiet of the forest during hunting season. Until someone on the other side of the ridge opened up like he'd just stumbled into an enemy machine gun nest. Seriously.

      But it is much more laid back up there.

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  5. "...a fellow who needs a call sign I suppose at some point" YOT. It works. I think that was the call sign for the tandem seating in some frog eyed Air Force bomber.... (You Over There) I've had that name at times.

    Good on ya making the trip back without getting your socks wet. I ma learning to vicariously enjoy visiting other people's family. I'm glad you have your mom still. I miss mine even though it's been 27 years. Doesn't seem like it could be that long ago....

    I had my first Thanksgiving alone. And my first go at smoking a turkey for an hour to give it a different flavor. Hickory didn't disappoint. Still have pies to make. A friend made me a pumpkin pie, and it is / was really good. I did miss the sounds of the kids running rampant, but things change with time, and time waits for no man....





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    1. Time also seems to have no patience with some. DAMHIK

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  6. To me, what you said shrieks 'callsign.' Herman. Her-man. Herman. Totally confusing and oh-so-fun. Or not.

    My mom keeps telling me how feeble she is. I keep telling her she has to do 5 years more than her mother, who finally died after a 3rd bout of Leukemia along with some more dead bowel and just rode-hard-put-up-wetness at the young age of 95. Grandma's side of the family tended to portly/fat and long lived. Me? Portly/fat, so hopefully long lived.

    We did the whole restaurant holiday dinner before, with her parents, but I enjoy cooking and leftovers too much to do it. Mrs. Andrew and I have cooked Thanksgiving in the Ocala National Forest for the family (one thing about being on the long receiving end of single child generations is not a lot of extended family, though I did find one guy out there who's distantly related through Great-Grandpa Purdy (found on a machinist's blog, even.)) And then we went home and cooked a 25pdr (turkey, not the Brit howitzer, oven's not that big) for leftovers.

    Like you, can't imagine not being connected for a while these days. Though I used to do it regularly with the SCA, tune out Friday night when arriving at an event, and not see tv or hear radio until Sunday afternoon at the earliest.

    Glad you and yours survived another.

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    1. Hhmm ... A part of me likes that callsign, but it needs a twist.

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    2. juvat #1 - Ah, you get my drift. But this one is a bit too, ya know, WWII German.

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    3. juvat #2 - This might work, he is a tall fellow.

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  7. It's been a great week round here. AAR being drafted as we speak...or shortly thereafter. Glad you had a safe trip and got to see your mom. One of the more thought inducing realizations I've had recently is that I am now the elder statesman of my branch of the family. So...Enjoy her while you can.

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    1. I'm not the eldest in my greater-San Diego family, but I seem to have picked up that mantle- being asked to cut the turkey, say the blessing, and be the occasional minister of the peace for my family members that have left the Catholic Church. Probably because I'm the only one of my generation that hasn't lapsed.

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    2. juvat - Yes, I know what you speak of, I feel myself getting closer and closer to that position.

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    3. Tuna - So you're volunteering to be the Chant's chaps? (I have a post simmering which might require a good chaplain.)

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    4. Why do I now have a picture of Tuna in cowboy duds, chaps over jeans, cowboy hat, vestments...

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  8. Welcome back Sarge. Hope your muse is able to visit, but if not, no worries. Btw, I heard about Monsoor at work- quite a bit of excitement about that underway and the events planned. I hope it all goes well.

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    1. Re: Monsoor. Yes, a number of us have worked very hard to make that happy, the crew included, specifically the CSO. A very good man there!

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  9. Sounds like a HUZZAH! sort of Thanksgiving!

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  10. Herman's Hermits is all I got.

    We're having Turkey dinner 2 tonight.

    First was "Flash", due to an accidental full discharge of a Honeywell Sun 77 in a very populated classroom. "I thought it wasn't ... " nah, didn't work at al
    Then there was "Paperhead" (girls covering my head with paper masche while I was passed out backstage), then "RealMrSpock" at MSU, then (USMC) Tank III, Tom Tank, and finally "Atomic Tank" if I was in apparent trouble (Birds or Stars wanting my pressence to explain something) or being celebrated (3 miles in 14:25. [Unknowingly being paced to that by a squad of DIs and Docs, I could not even stand for ten minutes.])

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  11. Glad you had a Happy Thanksgiving and welcome back!!

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  12. I did the return trip from New Hampshire last night. The wife and I flew out from the ATL on a 757-400 that had gremlins in the entertainment system like it was a throwback to the Rockwell Collins Linux system that was so problematic 10 years ago. Other than that it was a good flight that was about 80% full. Good seeing the daughter and her puppy. I did go to Pease AFB to get a new retired ID card as the old one was delaminating. They have finally gone to the CAC style ID for retirees. After driving the rental car back to Logan, avoiding tolls, we got on an Airbus 320-200 that was 100% full. It was a decent flight but the flight attendant working the speaker system was wasting his and everybody else's time every time he spoke. I am not sure what his primary language is but he did not have any grasp on English as a second language. Good to be home. Now to catch up on a weeks worth of Blogs I have missed.

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    1. Glad you had the chance to be with family. Glad you made it home with sanity intact after experiencing modern day airline travel!

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  13. Yeah, me too everything said...glad you're back!

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