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Praetorium Honoris

Friday, December 1, 2023

Turkey Day, a Review (Of Sorts)

OAFS Photo
As I related yesterday, I spent Thanksgiving down Maryland way. Though I was only there for three full days, it was good to see everyone.

The grandkids are growing like weeds. Every time I see them it appears that they've grown four or five inches. Of course, that's not really true, just feels like it. (Though Roberto has grown an inch or so since his birthday, Finnegan is completely mobile now and is on the cusp of actually walking. I think he's going to be like his mother. The Nuke went straight from crawling to sprinting, she has yet to slow down!)

I want to get into the holiday mood, I really do, but life has taught me to tread carefully vis-à-vis the holidays. (Which is, to me, the period from Thanksgiving to Epiphany, used to start around Halloween, doesn't now for reasons I might talk about in a bit, if I remember to.)

I know it's completely without foundation, but it seems to me, over the last decade or so, that death stalks the holidays. Friends dying, beloved cats, so far no relatives, but ...

I told the kids recently, well I told LUSH, that if I get sick near a holiday, you know a death bed sort of thing, "keep my ass alive until at least a month after the holidays, I don't want to ruin it for everyone else!"

It just seems that every time I've gotten a little too excited about the holidays, someone I care about died. So I figure if I lay low, not get too excited, then maybe that won't happen.

Yeah, right.

Oh, the Halloween thing, once the kids grew up and moved away (and our town became inundated with yuppy parents¹) it seemed to make no sense to "celebrate" Halloween. We live in an aging, middle class neighborhood so we don't see many kids anymore either. Kind of sad. But then again, what's the point? (Not being Catholic, or Mexican, I don't really view it as a religious holiday either. Though I do think the whole Día de los Muertos thing is kinda cool, though a bit morbid.)


Anyhoo, the trip down to Maryland having been covered, what was the stay in Maryland like?

Well, oddly enough, it was colder down there than it was in Little Rhody, which surprised me. Mind you, it didn't faze me either, we Vermonters are made of much sterner stuff than those southern New Englanders. (Meaning I don't consider it "cold" unless the thermometer is well below freezing, typically subzero Fahrenheit.) Recently one of my Little Rhodian colleagues mentioned that "it's going to be cold tomorrow," to which I replied, "colder perhaps, but not cold." Puzzled him it did. Heck, it didn't get below 30. (Which in C is bloody hot, we're talking F here.)

Now I'm not trying to claim that I'm as tough as say, the Inuit, but I've seen cold, real cold. Once delivered newspapers when the thermometer indicated -30°, afterwards I walked to school (yes, uphill, both ways). Mind you, that's still air, none of this wind chill stuff. Though truth be told, -30° due to wind chill feels much colder than the still air variety. DAMHIK.

Now where was I? Oh yeah, Maryland. Sunny (though chilly), three grandkids present, lots of food, and lots of football on the telly. I typically don't watch a lot of football these days, having grown very tired of idiotic (and mostly "woke" commercials), terrible officiating, and very bad announcers. But for Thanksgiving I'll make an exception, tradition ya know. (I also make an exception for Michigan vs. Ohio State - Go Blue! and Army vs. Navy - Go Navy, Beat Army.)

We had fun in each other's company and ate far too much. Had one rather odd incident involving cranberry sauce (not sure why it's called a sauce, but there ya go). The Nuke had purchased a number of cans of that oh-so-necessary accompaniment to the Thanksgiving meal (YMMV) and upon opening a third can (for little Roberto can't get enough cranberry sauce) she exclaimed in horror that, "something is wrong with it!" as she dug through it with her fingers.

Aghast, I looked at her and bellowed, "Dear Lord, what are you doing to that wonderful whole berry cranberry sauce! Render it hither!"

Blushing slightly, she said, "Uh, I thought it had gone bad."

Turns out, I'm the only one in the family that actually likes the whole berry variety, a taste I didn't acquire until my late 40s, or so I believe. Hated it as a kid, that much I remember. So glory of glories, I had the whole can to myself. Did I eat all of it? Why yes, yes I did. But not in one sitting, had the rest the day after.

So it was great to visit the "Old Line State," as I really love it down there. Well, except maybe Baltimore, I've never been in to the city (I abhor cities in general, well, except London and Paris) but it does have a certain sordid reputation. (Perhaps I've binge watched The Wire too many times. What? You haven't seen that? Do go find it, great television.)

Going back for Christmas, and I've promised Roberto that I'll grow a moustache (don't ask), yes, yes, pictures will follow. Speaking of pictures ...

Roberto and his sister Tuttlesdottir on their massive playground set
OAFS Photo

The holly!
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Wee Finnegan looking for trouble.
If you look closely you can see that Buzz Lightyear tried, in vain, to stop him.

OAFS Photo

Roberto caught in the act of messing with climbing Santa.
He loves turning the volume up (the thing plays Christmas carols), as it annoys the adults.

(I don't count myself in that crowd.)
OAFS Photo
Putting the Christmas decorations up the day after Thanksgiving was a pleasant surprise, now I'm rather in the holiday spirit. December is here, my favorite month.

I'd best be careful ...




¹ The sort of parents who take their kids via vehicle to a rich neighborhood to go trick-or-treating. Hates them, we do.

26 comments:

  1. Sarge, glad you had a great time and a safe trip! Looking forward to a imilar celebration here in a couple of week.
    BTW I also like whole cranberry sauce, can’t stand the jelly stuff.
    juvat

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    1. I like both, I'm very partial to the taste of cranberries in almost any form.

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  2. If you buy cranberries and make your own cranberry sauce you'll know why they call it sauce... (I have a spouses who make her own), I grew up on it coming out of a can so we get that kind also...
    I spent 13 years in the upper-mid west (last 6 in northern Minnesota) and if I never see another sub zero (f) temp it will be more than ok with me! I'm in Florida and it's 61 heading to 80 today :-)

    Merry Christmas Sarge!

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    1. 61 heading to 80? Very nice, but I need the cold at this time of year. I remember a Christmas up here some years ago where the temperature was 65. Didn't care for it, not at all.

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  3. I miss cold weather, but we had a better heater then. (Internal AND external) It gets blistering hot down this way, and this summer was 100 days of 100 plus. That gets old awfully quick. I'm enjoying every moment below 90 °. Good looking crop of progeny and that homestead is beautiful. Happy Christmas this year, Sarge. May God give you a break on the losses. That truly does suck.

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    1. Anything above 80 gets me cranky.

      Though yeah, the internal heater was better in my youth. (And the heat in the house was affordable, it was before we started kowtowing to furriners whose ancestors landed on oil, but did nothing to extract it from the ground.)

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  4. Thanks for sharing your holiday, Sarge. Sounds like a lot of fun.

    I really need to "work" on being in the holiday (I say this every year). It is hard when it is end of the year and everything flies towards "we need to be done before 31 December". Once upon time, work effectively slowed down during December to allow for this sort of thing. Now, not so much.

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    1. It seems corporate types view the holidays now as a time for deadlines and pushing stuff through. Most of them are idiots mimicking the actions of those who went before but not understanding a damned thing about human morale. The gubmint loves it most of all, a pox on both their houses.

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    2. i was one of those odd types that started the year with the maximum 6 weeks of carried over vacation. Somehow more vacation time accumulated over the year faster than I used it. Then there would come the sudden realization that I had to take three weeks of vacation between Thanksgiving and Christmas or lose it. Sitting at my desk, it was fun to tell my boss to be nice to me because I was on vacation and could just go home.

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    3. I use it when it's available. There were guys who worked for me in the Air Force that I had to make take vacation. They'd get into a rut and get stale, "Go out, have fun, stay away from work for a while."

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  5. I know the feeling about losing people during the holidays. When I was in the Navy, I lost a friend every December 12th from 1984 until 1988. A couple of them were my roommates from the training squadron.

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    1. Makes you flinch every time that date approaches, doesn't it?

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  6. Echoing TB Sarge, thanks for sharing your holiday visit, mild weather you had from the photos. Around here cold starts, for me, around 10 above and lower, Tuesday morning dropped to 9 above while up North at Hibbing it was 8 below.......(shiver) Haven't watched pro Sportsball since they started kneeling although that Iowa State vs. Kansas State game last Saturday evening in the snowfall was neat to view.

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    1. Didn't rain, but it was crisp and cold. My ideal weather actually. (Though I do like a bit o' snow on Christmas Day. Not much, just enough.)

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  7. What a great family, and a great home to live in, or to visit.
    Merry Christmas to all!
    JB

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  8. Deaths during the holidays is a real thing. Often related to depression and stress, along with associated disease vectors from being around people one isn't normally around. So, well, there's that. Rapid changes in temperature also a factor. Which sucks.

    Whole berry, loved it all my life. Love the canned stuff, and even know the secret to getting it out of the can in one can-shaped blob.

    Weather? We were at/below freezing for a couple days, back into the 60's at night, back down to at/below freezing and now back up to 60's at night. Which is fine, but, dangit, pick a range (preferably in the cooler section) and stick there for a while. Yeesh.

    And as we are now a very ethnic neighborhood, I get to listen to no fewer than 3 damned roosters blaring all day and night. Hens I understand, but roosters? Methinks someone is fighting them, but no proof, except who keeps roosters?

    Been rocking the 'stache for years now. Keep it trimmed to a half Selleck (not too bushy, off the upper lip, in line with the sides of the mouth) and except for the occasional itchy hair (signifying that said hair is going to fall out) I have had no problem with said lip caterpillar. But have to keep other facial hair away in order to get a good seal with the CPAP. Good luck growing yours.

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    1. I had the requisite Dolf-stache when I was on Okinawa. Also had a beard for a while after I retired. Seeing how things grow in is a tad scary. Heck, can always just shave it off if it looks too shabby.

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  9. My friend, Larry was in Maryland for T-day. Maybe your paths crossed. He flew Southwest, too.

    Re: Yuppie trick or treating: sometimes it's just about taking the kids someplace where the houses are closer together. When my kids were little, sometime back in the last century,, we lived in an area where it was sometimes more than a quarter mile between houses. We'd pack the three kids in the truck and haul them to town, to a subdivision where they could walk around a block and fill their bags.

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    1. My old school neighborhood wasn't spread out, most of the neighborhoods here aren't either. These new parents take their kids to where the loot is better. Can't say I blame them, but hell, no one knows their neighbors anymore, and that's one reason why.

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    2. Best trick or treating ever was being a kid on an Air Force Base. All the families in the housing area were basically of the same age and therefore had kids. Houses were mostly duplexes so walking to the next one wasn't difficult. Most (ok virtually all) of the folks were of a fairly single mind on traditions. Did I mention that back in the day, Halloween was almost as popular as Christmas.
      Yeah, fond memories of Webb AFB for juvat
      juvat

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    3. My kids had much the same experience at Offutt, base housing was awesome for such events.

      In our little village in Germany the JAG's wife (a neighbor and good friend) arranged a Halloween thing in the neighborhood. She was fluent in German, which was awesome and rare for an American. The Germans were all in on it, they found it odd, but the kids all loved it.

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  10. I have yet to get decorations up- indoors is my wife's domain, the outdoor lights is mine. The fact that I work until 4 and it's dark by the time I'm home doesn't help. And now I have 3 Mustang-related events this weekend. Maybe I can find daylight after the one tomorrow.

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    1. It's starting to be dark when I go in, dark when I come out. And it will get darker still, but then come December 21st, the days start getting longer again.

      Chez Sarge is very minimalist as regards decorations. Candles in the windows, maybe a wreath on the door, we only go all out when the kids and grandkids are in town.

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    2. I get it. Mindi would rather just put up the advent candles, and the manger. Meanwhile, I want to invent a laser light device that makes it look like I have multi-colored lights on the roof line, without stringing any.

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    3. Invent that and you'll make a fortune!

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