We Gather Together

Thanksgiving was great, as always, though it seemed a bit odd for a variety of reasons.  Of course, there was still concern for Mom, and the need to take care of her.  I worked so much early in the week, between my two jobs, that I couldn't be around much.  Lynda and Jenny took turns spending the night, and I spent afternoons and all day Wednesday there.

Mom couldn't do the mashed potatoes or bake a turkey, and at the last minute Bob and Sharon canceled due to Sharon's health problems.  (I suspect it might also have had a bit to do with being told by Dad that they couldn't stay at their house, as usual, but everyone else says that's not true.)  They usually bring Fannie May candy, and they just hadn't managed to order it, so Lynda bought some.  Diane and Ted brought along their son Chris's friend Felix, from Germany.  He had not experienced an American Thanksgiving before, and was a little taken aback by a holiday devoted to eating.  He certainly did his share.  :)  Because Bob wasn't there to do the grace, I was tasked with finding one online.  It's harder than you would think to find one that is enough religious without being all King James-y or Bible thumper-y, that says what you want it to say without being too.....too something.  In the end, I found a perfect one:

Lord, as we pause in our busy lives
to gather around the Thanksgiving table,
sharing the precious bond among family and friends,
let us remember that this abundant harvest,
this feast of delicious and nourishing dishes
is the fulfillment of our faith
that You will always provide for us.
As we go through this cherished ritual,
the Thanksgiving holiday ceremony,
let us feel the comfort of Your care for us
in every bite we eat and enjoy.
In this tradition,
begun by courageous travelers long ago
to thank you for their lives and safety,
we thank You
for the joy and happiness you give us, to lift us up,
and also for the sometimes difficult lessons and challenges
You give us to make us stronger, better,
and more aware of our need for You.
Thank you for the support and courage You give us
to get through troubled times.
Thank You for answered prayers
and also for the times You said "no,"
to keep us from stumbling off Your path for us.
We know that in all things,
You are working for our good.
Now, as we draw together in unity
to savor this wonderful dinner,
we are thankful for those who prepared it,
for those who join us to enjoy it,
and most of all, we thank You, Lord,
for the many different kinds of blessings
You continually grant us.
We pray that You'll bless this food,
and bless all of us as we gather together.
In Jesus' name we pray; Amen.

By Joanna Fuchs

  

The next day was the brunch at the farm.  We started a little later than usual, so in addition to the breakfast foods, we hauled out all of the Thanksgiving leftovers, too.   We had simplified by eliminating waffles and a couple of other things, but believe me, there was plenty of food.  Afterward, when Diane and Ted were getting ready to leave, I asked Felix if he enjoyed himself and if he got enough to eat.  Did he want to make a sandwich to take with him?  He said he had a great time, and he didn't think he would ever want to eat again.  Then he pulled off another piece of monkey bread.  :)  I have often wondered what Jorge or someone would think if they were here for Thanksgiving.  Now I kind of have an idea!

Worked Out at Work

After a lot of "whatever you wants" and "whatever works best for you", I have finally gotten an answer from the home improvement place about what my tax season schedule will look like.  I will be working there Tues, Thurs, and Fri, 5-9 from Jan 12 to April 15.  Mondays always seem to be busy at the tax place, and having Wednesdays free (from the home improvement place) will give me the ability to go the alumni board meetings on the one Wed a month that they meet, without asking off work.

I adjusted my availability at the tax place, and all is well.  I am still available plenty of hours there, and will most likely be working a lot of Sundays, since our regular Sunday person is not coming back this year.  So once I get my head on straight, it should all work out well.  I'm actually looking forward to getting back into tax season.  I know that's a little sick, but that's me!

One of Those Days.....

Any woman can relate to this:
You know how, while digging around in your underwear drawer, you come across a bra that you forgot that you had?  It looks practically new, everything intact, and you can't remember why you didn't wear it.  You put it on, look in the mirror, move around, maybe bend over..... everything looks good and feels good, so you decide to wear it to work.  And then approximately 37 minutes into your day, you remember exactly why it was exiled to the back of the drawer..... it's one of those days.

Actually, it started yesterday.  I was supposed to work at the tax place until 4:00.  Things ran late, but it didn't matter.  I got done about 4:20 and just sauntered on out like I had all day.  As soon as I started the car, though, I remembered that I had to be at the home improvement place at 5:00!  So I rushed home, changed clothes, grabbed something to eat, and went to work - again.  Just as I arrived there, I got a call from Jenny, saying that Mom had fallen and broken her arm, and was then in the ER.  I was told not to leave work, so all evening long I was texting back and forth, until it was determined that she would stay in the hospital last night.  It turned out that she not only had a broken arm, but also three broken ribs, and she was in a lot of pain.

Chad's phone was out of minutes, so I had no way to call him to tell him.  When I got off at 9:00 I drove down by the house to see if he was there (no).  Oh well.  Then at 10:30, he knocked on the door - he had been at work.  Duh.  The last place I would have looked.  :)  So this afternoon when I get off at 2:00, I will take him to get a phone card, then go see Mom.  She expects to get out today, but probably not by 2:00.  She didn't even get sent to a room until going on 11:00 last night, after arriving at 5:00 in the ER!  My brain is completely scrambled as far as days and times.  I am not geared up mentally for combining two jobs, let alone the extra stuff like 80 yr old parents who climb on ladders.

What actually happened was, she was on a ladder touching up paint in the bedroom.  She was coming down frontwards, started to fall, and Dad tried to catch her.  He couldn't hold her, and she fell anyway, then he fell on top of her.  She had fallen against the bedroom door, so he couldn't get out, and he called Jenny, who then called 911.  Just before getting on the ladder, she was up on the dresser painting that wall and then discovered that she couldn't get down.  I talked to Dad last night, and it really rattled him because she lost consciousness briefly. Jenny said the EMTs were great, though. Parents!  It's hard enough to think about people dying eventually, and I really don't want them dying from something stupid like climbing on ladders.

So as soon as I get off here at the tax place, I have to run home, get Chad, go to the hospital, then run him to get a phone card before taking him to work.  Tomorrow I have no work anywhere, but Monday and Tuesday should be....interesting.  I work 9-4 here, then 5-9 there both days, so I need to get groceries tomorrow and be ready to quickly assemble break stuff and dinners.  Then I don't work again at the tax place until Saturday (though I work at the home improvement place both Wed and Fri nights, 5-9).

This week is Thanksgiving, and I think the number one thing I will be thankful for this year is that my mother will be OK, except for that hardheadedness that we can't seem to do anything about.

This and That

Last Friday was the cookout that Lynda and David usually have at the farm every year.  The weather was terrible on Thursday - really windy, cold, rainy.  But Friday turned out perfect.  It was mostly sunny, though cool - a perfect night for a bonfire.  David had built these little temporary walls that were wedged under the shop door, blocking most of the entry.  But because they were a wooden framework covered with plastic, you could still see through them  They really helped block some of the cold without seeming closed off.  Braden's group, Red Scarves, was the musical entertainment, and Cindy, from Lucern House, danced in front of them.  At one point, she grabbed beer (cap intact) and pretended to drink it.  I have a short video of her with the beer bottle.  When Lynda appears in the frame, she quickly puts it back down.  Hilarious!  I mean, Cindy is plenty old enough to drink if she wanted to, but.....  It was a nice mix of people, and a good time, even though it was pretty cold by the time it was over.  The couple whose wedding we attended (Kendra and Janae) was there, and I was telling Kendra that I was helping with a geocaching class on Saturday.  She looked surprised, and said, "Are you are geocacher?"  Turns out that she has tried it a couple of times when she lived in Vermont, and she wants Janae to try it.  So we might possibly be getting together to go out sometime!

On Saturday, I spent the morning at the park with the geocaching class, then came back to town for a memorial service in the afternoon.  Today I didn't do a whole lot, except rake the backyard with Kym.  I wanted Chad to get out and help, but he found one excuse after another not to.  He was supposedly going to be going to work on this house they are fixing up to move into.  But his ride didn't materialize, and eventually, after Kym and I were done and were discussing what to do with the patio furniture, he finally came out, grabbed a rake, and started on the front yard.  I just didn't say a word.  He has been in a snarky, nasty mood for days, partly because his hours are getting cut (along with everyone else's) since the "new" has worn off of Pizza Ranch.  I guess he is going to be looking for another job to mesh with it to pay for this new place.  Pleeeeease let him be successful in finding something!

Goodbye, DST! Hello, November!

It suddenly turned wintery yesterday, and last night was our first hard freeze.  When I came out of work at 9:00, it was 37 degrees.  When I started the car, there was a dinging noise and a light came on on the dash.  What the....?  What could possibly be wrong with the car already?  I had plenty of gas, I knew.  But it was a little picture of a road with a big snowflake in it, and underneath, it said "possible icy roads"!  I was really surprised - I had no idea that it would do that.  People who have seen my car have said that it has some features that they have seen only on high-end cars (like the automatic windshield wipers that come on when needed and run as fast or as slow as they feel necessary) and I guess this is another example of that.  It's a small thing, but I am impressed.  We did not get ice last night, though my wasabi coleus went from green to brown and mushy.

Since I was working and Kym didn't get home from work till 7:00, I didn't buy any Halloween candy.  I usually have about 100 trick or treaters, so I felt a little bad about being gone, but there was no way around it.  Hey, I saved some money and I don't have any leftovers!

Today we gave each new bush in the yard - 10 all together - a fertilizer spike to help them through the winter, and I started raking the back yard,  Blitz was outside playing with his ball and enjoying running around in his new coat.  He quickly claimed one of the leaf piles as his own, and stood or laid in the middle of it with his toys.  I just raked around him.  There are lots of leaves still to fall, but last year we made the mistake of waiting too long before raking.  Then we had a sudden early snow and they were frozen to the ground.  Thus began the winter of 2013-2014, and it didn't let up until March.  Not going to make that mistake again.

How did it get to be November already???

Training for the early part of the tax season is two weeks from today, and the regular training starts the next Monday.  Still trying to figure out how the home improvement place and the tax place will fit together.  For the early tax season, at least, I can work daytime hours and then still work at the other job at night.  I can attend the daytime training classes and work evenings, too.  The really busy part of the early season only lasts a week or two, anyway.  But tax season is another matter.

I was originally told that part-time at the home improvement place had to be at least 10 hours.  If I could do two five-hour days, that would work, but giving up three evenings a week might be difficult.  There are plenty of weeks when it wouldn't hurt for me to be off in the evenings, but it's hard to guess when they would be.  I'm afraid that it is all going to be kind of last minute, but at least I did tell them about the conflict.  I know that I could quit totally until April with no hard feelings, but I really don't want to have to.  I earn more at the tax place, so I don't want to give up hours there in order to keep the other job happy.  One way or another, the next few weeks will make things more clear.  I just hate not knowing how things will go.

Time to go set the clocks back (if I can remember which ones I have to do, and which do themselves).  I plan to use my extra hour tonight sleeping!  :)