The Elusive Bird
24/11/13 07:30
Hells bells, dude. I know it's hard to believe but Thanksgiving is rolling around again. As I sit here at the computer a little after 7 on a Saturday morning, the temperatures are in the 20's and the wind is howling something fierce. My baby is still in bed and I've been up since a little before 5. The wood stove kept temperatures in the house just above 60 the whole night through as I'd hoped it would. It is only going to get colder from here on in. I can't imagine the wind chill will be pretty out there today and my heart goes out to the homeless folk hereabouts. Hopefully, they are seeking shelter from the brutality of this cold spell. I spent the day yesterday putting away lawnmowers, fixing and buying bird feeders and getting them up and running, and just a bunch of other things that one does before the snow falls. It figures that when you put the feeders up and fill them with the best, freshest, and select seeds that you can find, that the birds are nowhere to be found. Maybe we're putting them up a bit too early this year. Maybe the little furry fuckers don't even start looking until the first snow falls. Well, memo to Johnny. Maybe that's true. What do they want? A bloody invitation? And, this year, we bought a squirrel-proof feeder. Check back in with me in a month or two and I'll tell you how successful or not those furry little bastards have been. My money is on the squirrels.
Evan will be coming home from school in a couple of days. It will be nice to have him around for a change. I suspect we'll not see a lot of him when he's here but that is about what we expect. We do hope that he stays in touch and that he doesn't keep us up half the night every night that he's here. I can't say that we'd much appreciate that. Some fella from school is giving Evan a ride as far as Massachusetts and we'll arrange to pick him up there. There is no snow in the forecast so we'll not fret any more than usual. We asked Ev, did you arrange to get a ride back to school from the same fella? "Why, no," he said. As incredulous as that sounds, that is how the conversation went. We won't have that college material discussion again anytime soon since he seems to be fully engaged so we'll let that take us and him as far as it can. I told Nancy that it will be nice to have Evan come home to a warm house so I'll have a nice fire and we'll let it run while we travel to Massachusetts to pick him up. And, we'll try to make some of his favorite dishes so he can steer clear of that fast food stuff he's been eating at school. What is it with the microwaved meals? We'll have a nice Thanksgiving meal at Nancy's mom's house on Thursday and aside from Evan we're expecting Nancy's sister Debbie to join us. We've asked her to bring Portugese sweet bread so we'll see if she remembers to do that. It will be the first holiday without Nancy's dad since he passed away early this year so we'll do our level best to bring a little holiday cheer to Nancy's mom and the home she now inhabits.
So much for our good friends at Hurd farm. We arrived a little after 2 to pick up our Thanksgiving turkey and found to our dismay that they had distributed all but the smallest of turkeys earlier in the day and if we wanted one we would have to select one of the birds that weighed less than ten pounds. I was disappointed to say the least. There is reportedly a shortage of Butterball turkeys this season so that likely sent a battle cry out across the land that if you wanted a succulent bird of any kind that you would be wise to look early and often or go without. We were quickly falling into the latter category and not feeling good about our prospects. Surely, there must be other options available to us. What, pray tell, would we tell our guests who were planing to come from far and wide to share in our proposed sumptuous feast? Would we serve up something frozen and pass it off as fresh? Would we purchase something sliced and by the pound and pass it off as our own? I began to feel like the only dad on the block without a cabbage patch doll for his daughter sitting beneath the tree on Christmas morning. I was determined to remedy that absurdity that was growing like a cancer inside my brain. Stopping by one of the pricier stores in town, I spied a 16 pounder that looked to be most appropriate in size with the usual qualifiers like no hormones, farm raised, no antibiotics, and all the rest. It was perfect and the day was saved. Cold, but saved. We learned a lesson in our dealings with Hurd and one that should serve us well in the years ahead. Get there as early and as often as you can if you want the best that money can buy. Good advice anyway you slice it. Pass the gravy please....
Evan will be coming home from school in a couple of days. It will be nice to have him around for a change. I suspect we'll not see a lot of him when he's here but that is about what we expect. We do hope that he stays in touch and that he doesn't keep us up half the night every night that he's here. I can't say that we'd much appreciate that. Some fella from school is giving Evan a ride as far as Massachusetts and we'll arrange to pick him up there. There is no snow in the forecast so we'll not fret any more than usual. We asked Ev, did you arrange to get a ride back to school from the same fella? "Why, no," he said. As incredulous as that sounds, that is how the conversation went. We won't have that college material discussion again anytime soon since he seems to be fully engaged so we'll let that take us and him as far as it can. I told Nancy that it will be nice to have Evan come home to a warm house so I'll have a nice fire and we'll let it run while we travel to Massachusetts to pick him up. And, we'll try to make some of his favorite dishes so he can steer clear of that fast food stuff he's been eating at school. What is it with the microwaved meals? We'll have a nice Thanksgiving meal at Nancy's mom's house on Thursday and aside from Evan we're expecting Nancy's sister Debbie to join us. We've asked her to bring Portugese sweet bread so we'll see if she remembers to do that. It will be the first holiday without Nancy's dad since he passed away early this year so we'll do our level best to bring a little holiday cheer to Nancy's mom and the home she now inhabits.
So much for our good friends at Hurd farm. We arrived a little after 2 to pick up our Thanksgiving turkey and found to our dismay that they had distributed all but the smallest of turkeys earlier in the day and if we wanted one we would have to select one of the birds that weighed less than ten pounds. I was disappointed to say the least. There is reportedly a shortage of Butterball turkeys this season so that likely sent a battle cry out across the land that if you wanted a succulent bird of any kind that you would be wise to look early and often or go without. We were quickly falling into the latter category and not feeling good about our prospects. Surely, there must be other options available to us. What, pray tell, would we tell our guests who were planing to come from far and wide to share in our proposed sumptuous feast? Would we serve up something frozen and pass it off as fresh? Would we purchase something sliced and by the pound and pass it off as our own? I began to feel like the only dad on the block without a cabbage patch doll for his daughter sitting beneath the tree on Christmas morning. I was determined to remedy that absurdity that was growing like a cancer inside my brain. Stopping by one of the pricier stores in town, I spied a 16 pounder that looked to be most appropriate in size with the usual qualifiers like no hormones, farm raised, no antibiotics, and all the rest. It was perfect and the day was saved. Cold, but saved. We learned a lesson in our dealings with Hurd and one that should serve us well in the years ahead. Get there as early and as often as you can if you want the best that money can buy. Good advice anyway you slice it. Pass the gravy please....