Black Friday

 

There was once a time when retailers didn't even advertise Christmas until after Thanksgiving, and no one wanted to be first to break the tradition. 

The term Black Friday originated in 1950s Philadelphia, coined by local police officers to describe the chaotic day when hoards of people came to town after Thanksgiving for football and shopping.

Today is also "Buy Nothing Day" (ha ha.)  The kids are going downtown to the Pike Place Market, Uwajimaya and probably the giant Goodwill. I'm running on slow gear this morning so will probably take a rain check on that.

“Whoever said money can’t buy happiness simply didn’t know where to go shopping.” 

Gertrude Stein

Happy Thanksgiving

 

The turkey is in the oven. We're looking forward to a nice day, and even some peeks of sunshine this afternoon.

 

Pumpkin cheesecake and pecan pie for dessert-- made yesterday. The sides are already prepped and ready to go. Have a sweet day, wherever you are.

Here's a little poem my sister wrote this morning:

Thanksgiving

Hate is a noisy thing,
the spark of evil is fire.

Love is quiet,
the spark of joy is light.

On this day may we be open
to the light that surrounds us.

And grateful for the opportunity
to share our love.

Meal planning

 

That's a 1955 Thanksgiving food ad. A turkey dinner was a once-a-year treat when we were kids. With inflation, 60 cents a pound for turkey is the equivalent in purchasing power to $7 today. If you were lucky, a free turkey was a generous gift from your employer.

This was long before the days of processed turkey lunch meat, and a real turkey sandwich was a big deal.  

Our mom was a frugal cook by necessity. She generally only made enough for one meal. Leftovers meant bad meal planning, but turkey was the exception. After the meat had been picked off and made into things like croquettes, she put the whole carcass back in the roasting pan to heat up, then we pulled it apart at the table to get every last morsel off the bones. Wish I had a photo of three hungry kids attacking a carcass.

One year, mom's cub scout den even made Santa sleighs from breast bones. Remember those?

Anyway, I usually buy the biggest turkey possible, but this year went for quality over quantity and got a smaller Butterball instead. I just don't have room in the fridge for a behemoth, not to mention, lifting a 20 pound bird in and out of the oven. 

That's enough turkey stories-- a surprising number of people don't care for turkey at all. To us, it just wouldn't be Thanksgiving without a whole turkey.

Fee-fi-pho-fum

 

A pot of my fake pho with extra ginger for "dampness" on the qi (life force.) According to traditional Chinese medicine, brought on by "prolonged exposure to cold and damp environments." Duh.

It was 2 weeks ago today when we first came down with this cold. Both of us slowly on the mend, but what a long, draggy thing. Thank goodness for the freezer and stocked pantry, because we've been eating well-- even a tricky medium-rare roast beef dinner last night to celebrate the Seahawks. (If that day ever comes when I can't cook, go ahead and push the panic button.)

I even returned to my gym yesterday for the first time in weeks. After a half hour of the lightest exercise, I was spent. But hey, at least I went. It's going to take time to get back into normal physical routines. Our bodies are exhausted.

Speaking of food, Thanksgiving is the week for it-- ether highly anticipated or dreaded, depending on the cook. I'm old and I've done this meal at least 50 times, so you could say I have it down. 

One more shopping trip today for salad and fresh vegetables, then we're set. Wednesday is baking and prep day. My sister flies in from Las Vegas tomorrow (she is staying with Dave in Enunclaw because our house is full) and Amanda and family arrive Wednesday night. They will stay until Saturday.

Other than football, we've been working through Ken Burns new "Leonardo" program on PBS. It moves along a little faster than most of his series, but I miss Peter Coyote's droning voice.

 

One more

 

My friend Betsy took this picture in front of their house in Kirkland. All the heavily wooded areas on the eastside look like this. What a mess. They've been without power since Tuesday. 

Fortunately, power was restored yesterday in central Enumclaw where my brother Dave lives. In the nick of time. He said his Klondike Bars were just getting mushy! Not really funny, since many people will be discarding their entire freezers.

One more big storm today (pounding down rain at the moment) and then we go into a calmer weather pattern for Thanksgiving week. I've been busy stockpiling food. It will be a last minute rush at the grocery store this year. We're not going to Twisp -- everyone is coming here. 

Have a good weekend.

 

I dreamed I was the cook…

Cold and dark— for many

 

 

That is the Puget Sound Energy outage map this morning, with hundreds of thousands without power since Tuesday night. 

The Cascade foothill communities like North Bend and Enumclaw (where our brother lives) really took the brunt of the storm, with 70 mph gusts that knocked out not just lines, but major transmission towers. They don't expect power to be restored in most of those areas until Saturday.

Anyway, I feel for all the folks with fridges and freezers stuffed with turkeys and holiday food. We are counting our blessings in Seattle, that's for sure. 

More misery

 

It was a wind storm for the record books. About a half million people in western Washington don't have power this morning and there is much damage yet to be discovered when it finally gets light. We live on the edge of the most vulnerable West Seattle electrical grid, and felt lucky that ours only went out for a few hours in the middle of the night. 

Most of our storms are predictable, coming in from the Pacific, but this whipped the wind from the other direction. It was unnerving hearing the rain and wind beating on the east side of the house.

So we're just slogging along through the miserable week. This heavy congestion seems to be "breaking up" which is good, but I sound like a hacking smoker in the morning. 

We wasted most of the day yesterday taking my car back and forth to the Toyota dealer in Burien-- that's two hours of driving in heavy traffic. I will not waste more time here describing what happened, which is basically nothing. We dropped it off at 9, and by 2 pm so disgusted with the service department's total lack of communication (no one answered our calls or texts) we went back to get the car. 

As it turned out, even making the service appointment days in advance, they didn't bother to order the replacement front door seal for the job. Nothing got done. I put packing tape along the seal to hopefully keep the water out for a while. I'll deal with it after Thanksgiving. Suffice to say, my next car won't be a Toyota.

Galloping inland

 

For all intensive purposes, this is a hurricane, except in the Northwest they are called typhoons instead. 

The sinister looking thing will bring heavy winds tomorrow as it moves inland. It is snowing in the mountains and raining in the low lands. It is cold and dark. End of weather report.

We are doing our best to keep spirits up with whatever distractions we can find, like reading, napping or mindless coloring.

It beats doom scrolling in the computer. 

Our colds are dragging along through the predictable stages and slowly, slowly feeling better.  The turkey enchiladas helped last night. The fact I had enough energy to make them is a good sign.

News from gloomy land

 

Our colds are progressing through the typical, boring stages of misery. I don't feel as sick, other than sudden violent coughing. (The sounds in this house are not pretty.) John is a couple days behind me in symptoms, since I gave it to him. Nice.

It's been raining almost constantly this week. The sun came out today, and the bright light seems intrusive. No worries, more storms move in tonight.

I found a quarter inch of water on the front floor of my car this morning, for second time after overnight rain. All the AC vents were bone dry, so the culprit is likely a damaged/leaky door seal. The new seal costs about $100, although the Toyota dealer probably charges 10 times that to install it. Appointment next week--stay tuned. 

I've been grateful the well-stocked freezer, even though we don't have much appetite. After all the mushy soups and casseroles, I'm making fried steak and baked potatoes tonight. Maybe red meat will build up our strength. And some popcorn and football. Have a good weekend.

Feeling low, laying low

 

We made vegetable beef soup yesterday with some leftover pot roast. That was about it, other than a quick trip out for cold medicine. I've been mostly horizontal since Monday. And now John has come down with this same nasty thing. We are seldom sick, so a miserable experience. Travel has a way of catching up with you.

We are avoiding the political clown show as much as possible and just watching a little diversion TV, until I fall asleep at 7:30. We saw "Martha" on Netflix, the new documentary. 

Oh, Martha. She was displeased with how she was portrayed as an "old lady" in the the production, and made her feelings clear afterwards. A formidable, tireless person, and the documentary was kind of fun to watch. Not one to hold back, she had some real choice words for James B. Comey and former boyfriend Charles Simonyi. And opinions on every subject.

 

Waiting for eggs

 

Red Sex Links are usually the most friendly in the chicken world. Amanda says that's true with hers-- the hens are never skittish, they come running and follow you around like pets when you go in the coup. Gentle Nica looks worried. What a funny dog. This is one who goes berserk at the sight of a deer or wild turkey and the chase is on.

The hens are plump and healthy after 6 months of eating table scraps and expensive chicken feed. Where are the eggs? An increase in day length is a key driver, so Amanda put a light in their house, also some fake eggs in the nest boxes. If all 12 start laying at once, that will be a very good problem.

I came home from California with a bad cold (what a surprise) and spent yesterday laying around the house. It is good weather for hunkering down.

Mood indigo

 

 

With all this jet-setting around, we fell behind on the fall outdoor chores. Yesterday was the last dry day in a long time, so we had a window to get stuff done. 

John cleaned the gutters; I tided up the messy front porch and threw out the dead mum-- the pumpkins can stay until after Thanksgiving. Then my least favorite seasonal job, putting lights on the arbor, which goes a long way in brightening up the dark time. 

As for the garden, I'm taking a laissez-faire approach to cleaning out the beds-- I usually have everything cut back to the ground by now. This is better anyway for the wintering birds and the insects. Not to mention, more interesting to look at. When the trees and shrubs drop their leaves, I'll mulch the beds and skip the compost delivery this year.  

Today is Veteran's Day:

“A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom.”

Bob Dylan

 

 

Last but not least

 

 

The traditional picture-- John bids goodbye to his old friend at the airport.

Give me the simple life

 

Believe it or not, that mess is a gussied up fish taco plate from the upscale Palm Springs restaurant Clandestino. Calling it a Mexican restaurant is a bit of an understatement. We also had cheese-stuffed fried squash blossoms, which disappeared before I could take a picture.

All good things come to an end, and a person (at least this person) can't eat like that every day. 

But the good life goes on in southern California, and we often notice how much happier people are, especially those working in stores and restaurants. At least compared to Seattle, where the food service workers radiate depression over their jobs and life in general. It must be the climate.

The Palm Springs Art Museum has free admission on Thursday evenings during Village Fest, so we waddled over after dinner.

They had a wonderful special exhibit called "Particles and Waves." From 1945-1990, Los Angeles was the center of advanced scientific research, and artists (many of them born at the turn of the last century) produced these amazing abstract art works using the new materials, processes and machines-- such as the first "computer art."

So we had an enjoyable last evening in Palm Springs...

One more desert sunrise, then was time to head to the airport for an easy flight home. At least, everything seems easy compared to our recent Delta experience. It was a smooth flight up the coast, with all the familiar Northwest volcano mountains "out."

But not for long-- now it's going to rain into the foreseeable future. We're happy to get back to normal routines of eating and exercise-- time to hunker down and let the Northwest winter (and everything else) run its course. 

A seismic shift

 

The three hour "San Andreas Fault Movers and Shakers Jeep Tour" begins in the open desert outside of Indio, about a 45 minute drive from Palm Springs. There were 6 of us on the jeep, and we really didn't know what to expect.

The tour takes place on 850 acres of private land, and winds through the fantastical landscape with plenty of educational stops and short hikes into the slot canyons. Truly a geology paradise.

 

We had a good time...and nothing like geology to put current events into perspective.

And our tour guide Bonnie was excellent.

The final stop at a palm oasis and a recreated Cahuilla village. 

Other than that, we've just been doing our usual Palm Springs things. We have a quiet room at a small inn, with a view of the mountains. We've been spoiled by the hot mineral water, and the pool here feels too chilly for swimming. But it's a nice place to sit and soak in the winter sun and breath the clean air. No smoking.

Even in southern California, the sun sets early these days.

We made a pilgrimage to the Desert Memorial Park, where Frank Sinatra's grave recently made a mysterious change. (Click the link.)  Hummm.

 

Frank rests in good company with other local celebrities.

The cemetery was still decorated with flowers from Day of the Dead celebrations-- a poignant sight.

 

And last but not least, a must stop at the Moorten Botanical Garden. Village Fest tonight, then we head back to the land of rain and clouds in the morning.