Still Thankful, and with Good Reason

Friday, November 24, 2023. Also Black Friday and Buy Nothing Day, according to National Today. To us, it’s simply the Day after Thanksgiving … a day of freedom from kitchen duties, a day of take-out, or maybe lunch at one of Tucson’s famous Mexican restaurants. And for us, a relaxed day with Greg and Beth, our son and daughter-in-law, who drove down from Las Vegas to spend the holiday with us. And for that we’re especially thankful. Of course our daughter Polly is here too, almost miraculously with four days in a row off from her job at a nearby Safeway. The only ones missing are our grandchildren – Taylor busy managing her gym in Vegas, Quentin at college in Reno.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Photos: in typical oversharing manner, I posted these on social media moments after taking them, so if you follow me on those platforms you may have seen them before. But anyway. Greg and I posing with the smoker and my birthday watch; the fam and most of our dogs keeping me company T’giving morning; the brisket, smoked to perfection and served alongside the traditional turkey & sides (in the preparation of which everyone had a hand); sitting down to our feast with, from left, guest & pie-bringer Mary Anne, daughter Polly, son Greg, daughter-in-law Beth, me standing behind, and Donna. A couple of our dachshunds are underfoot, but Greg & Beth’s dog Piper was afraid to leave the safety of the family room couch and so didn’t join us.

Happy days indeed. Especially since the reflooring and repainting project in the living and dining rooms was done in time. We still have to rehang some art, but Donna and Polly say they’ll take care of that. Greg offered to put up Christmas lights today, but I’m meh on the idea and even Donna didn’t sound too enthusiastic. We do, however, have some giant ornaments we can hang on the palo verde tree out front, so maybe we’ll do that.

Speaking of social media, I pulled the plug on Twitter, now X (Half a Swastika®), closing accounts and deleting the app. Bluesky’s on hold while I concentrate on building up interesting follows on Threads. Still posting on Mastodon even though I’m out of sync with the zeitgeist there. I continue to post a lot of photos to Instagram, where I seem to have a following. And of course dear old Facebook for family & friends — I’m a regular there. As I try to be here on Paul’s Thing, which I think of as one of the few remaining personal weblogs (I’m sure there are still quite a few, but they’re not the big thing they once were).

I hope you and yours had a great Thanksgiving too. More soon.