Cloudy and Cool

Pies, pies, and more pies this morning.

It was pure joy to listen to CP singing to me, and into the phone to her paternal grandmother, who 39 years ago on this day as a 20 year old girl, sacrificed her birthday and Thanksgiving to push me out into the world. Thoughts of family and friends today run around the map like the scent of pie spices in the house - the Mississippi delta and central cattle country, the outskirts of Kansas City, California's wine country, and the left turn (x4) redneck racing capital of North Carolina.

We'll be off this afternoon to spend time with good friends, or what's sometimes referred to as "the family you pick". I'm taking a break from everything this afternoon to do some work behind the camera and I'm looking forward to it. My LW was up until 10pm or so making pies to give to a local charity today. Chocolate pecan and banana cream....she said that, "everyone needs a little bit of home cookin' on Thanksgiving".

It rained most of the night here and it looks like it'll be a good day.

Hanksgiving

Holy smokes. KXCI is playing Hank songs from all of the Williams generations (that count) and others named Hank today. It's great!

Hearing a toddler sing happy birthday is icing on the cake for today.

Life Lessons from Mary Gordon

There's a nice article called past, perfect on preserving traditions in the October issue of Real Simple. It discusses hanging on to relics of happy times. The article is only a page at best, but it's sure to get you thinking about your own history. I immediately thought of the thing, for me, that has stayed the same over decades. My paternal grandparents live in Cary, Mississippi. The fact that not much changes there isn't really a plus in the tally sheet of our modern plus/minus columns, but it's a huge positive when it comes down to comfort. The article discusses how great the feeling of something familiar can be.

Green bowls and old spoons. Every time I'm at my grandmother's house there is a pot of chickenndumplins. Really it's chicken and dumplings, but it's never pronounced that way, it's Mississippi after all. They're always dished up with an old serving spoon with a floral mark on the handle and I always eat them in one of my grandmother's plain old green bowls. At a garage sale, the whole set might fetch 50 cents, but they're irreplaceable. There's just a bit of perfection there in those bowls - with my childhood and a pinch of salt.

Visit from the Human Debris Fairy

Last night, after hearing all of the thumping base that I could stand from four houses down (yep, that far) I called the police. Well, the person who is the shacker-up with this lady was walking down the street and heard me talk about TPD coming soon. A little while later, the inverted bowling pin of a woman came down and beat on my door. Straight away, it was "You gotta problem with me?" and I knew that it would go downhill from there.

It did. The next part of the tirade started with, "You people...". Yup, us, the respectable ones that haven't been forced to move out by this person. Three houses close to this person have sold in the past 1.5 years. Two of the three cited this person as the reason for leaving.

After a stream of deluded consciousness and a few pretty funny nonsequitors, I got in a word edgewise and told her just to keep her f$(*@$g kid's music down. It really got funny after that and she started screaming obscenities and more nonsensical stuff at the top of her lungs, which for this little troll, was surprisingly loud. Her 20-something live-at-home son came down with a .45 or 9mm on his hip to see what mama was getting herself into and she must have realized that things could get ugly, and started to leave. Now, this kid is a superstar ....really, so I was a bit concerned about how he'd react, but he stayed in the street and only talked smack. So, by now, I'm pretty bent, and all of my neighbors have come outside to watch the show. She got in her truck, which she'd parked in front of my house, and left. After I settled down a bit, I called TPD again to speak to dispatch and let them know that they can add this to the incident report for this episode.

A couple of nice officers from TPD showed up an hour or so later to see what was going on. Talking to them, I got the impression that they thought she was as crazy as I did, so that was mildly reassuring. There wasn't really anything that they could do since the music was down, but they stressed that if *anything* else comes up, that I should call them immediately. They've got a tough job dealing with the crazies, but I'm really glad that they do it.

The American List

I found this list of American made things while reading around at Sweet Juniper. It's a pretty good line of things and I'm glad that someone has taken the time to put it up - I only wish that it were longer. I asked the owner of the list to add Vornado fans, since, like my wife, they're made in Kansas.

Almost...

...got signed in before CP emptied her entire bladder on the couch....."because she wanted to..".

Welcome to Tuesday.