Thanksgiving is done for a year, except for the leftovers, for which I am very thankful.
It's Black Friday, so keeping a 5 year old for working parents and staying at the house all day to avoid the whole, crazy, greedy, Christmas shopping orgasm.
The rain was cancelled, but sometimes when that happens, they are really just teasing and it's wet and soggy anyway.
If it stays nice, and 55-68 degree temps are nice even if overcast, then it will be an outside day.
My little guest loves outside days, sometimes even if they aren't very nice.
He also loves the crackly, curly leaves and a rake.
I don't rake my yard with much seriousness. Raking a couple of acres is like an act of attrition.
But boys only rake for fun, and there are a great many leaves awaiting that.
I'll piddle outside, maybe some outside cleaning, maybe some outside coffee drinking, and we will both have a great day.
If it turns out the weatherman?(woman?bot?) was just messing with us, we will go inside, clean off a place to work, and pull out some clay and make some things to throw in the kiln next time it gets turned on.
All in all---happiness is mostly assured for the day.
Thank god.
Friday, November 23, 2018
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
9 days till thanksgiving
When I was a kid, and when my kids were kids, Thanksgiving was pretty straightforward. We didn't always go the same place for Thanksgiving, but there was not craziness about trying to go to everyone's Thanksgiving, no one arguing about whose turn it was; none of that.
These days, its like a tug-a-war with every person thinking it has to be their year to host so they can also invite their inlaws and not have to worry about going to 2 meals or, in the world of divorce, the inlaws two meals and the family's 2 meals and so on and so on.
No one will say, this year its at my house.
No one will say, sorry, we were at your house last year.
No one will say, I think we want a small, intimate meal with just immediate family.
People out of town invite themselves for the week.
People that invited you to thanksgiving a week ago decide they are bringing the people they invited to their house to your house instead.
People that don't see each other except at holidays, and never talk except on facebook--unless they have unfollowed each other, suddenly are very sure that they all have to see each other over turkey.
And the menu.
It must be traditional.
It must offer a full selection for those that don't like traditional.
It must be low calorie.
There must be enough that everyone can gorge themselves.
No one can miss anything they associate with their own definition of thanksgiving food.
BUT
No one has a table that will seat more than 8 people comfortably. with a four person breakfast nook table in another room.
No one can take the week off to cook and clean so the meal is actually all done at the same time.
No one can tell you what all is going to arrive at the meal.
No one has plates for everyone or silverware for everyone or glasses for everyone---
except the oldest of us.
And millennials are all about passing the torch ASAP.
So, all the traditional food will be cooked using pinterest recipes that no one has tried.
All the food will be served on paper plates and eaten with plastic ware.
All the drinks will come in their own cans or bottles.
People will be sitting on the couch and leaning against countertops and sitting on the front porch trying to eat while too uncomfortable to try to visit with the people nearest them, should they know those people, should they like those people, should they not be a person that they normally avoid at all costs the rest of the year.
If the neighbors wouldn't show up with a paper plate full of their own terrible thanksgiving food, I'd stay home and cook myself a feast.
This year, I'm thankful thanksgiving only comes once a year.
These days, its like a tug-a-war with every person thinking it has to be their year to host so they can also invite their inlaws and not have to worry about going to 2 meals or, in the world of divorce, the inlaws two meals and the family's 2 meals and so on and so on.
No one will say, this year its at my house.
No one will say, sorry, we were at your house last year.
No one will say, I think we want a small, intimate meal with just immediate family.
People out of town invite themselves for the week.
People that invited you to thanksgiving a week ago decide they are bringing the people they invited to their house to your house instead.
People that don't see each other except at holidays, and never talk except on facebook--unless they have unfollowed each other, suddenly are very sure that they all have to see each other over turkey.
And the menu.
It must be traditional.
It must offer a full selection for those that don't like traditional.
It must be low calorie.
There must be enough that everyone can gorge themselves.
No one can miss anything they associate with their own definition of thanksgiving food.
BUT
No one has a table that will seat more than 8 people comfortably. with a four person breakfast nook table in another room.
No one can take the week off to cook and clean so the meal is actually all done at the same time.
No one can tell you what all is going to arrive at the meal.
No one has plates for everyone or silverware for everyone or glasses for everyone---
except the oldest of us.
And millennials are all about passing the torch ASAP.
So, all the traditional food will be cooked using pinterest recipes that no one has tried.
All the food will be served on paper plates and eaten with plastic ware.
All the drinks will come in their own cans or bottles.
People will be sitting on the couch and leaning against countertops and sitting on the front porch trying to eat while too uncomfortable to try to visit with the people nearest them, should they know those people, should they like those people, should they not be a person that they normally avoid at all costs the rest of the year.
If the neighbors wouldn't show up with a paper plate full of their own terrible thanksgiving food, I'd stay home and cook myself a feast.
This year, I'm thankful thanksgiving only comes once a year.
Sunday, November 4, 2018
The lap of luxury.
So, I woke up this morning to see a kitten curled up with her tiny stuffed puppy, purring while asleep. Knowing that her mother is one of the feral cats that frequent the neighborhood feed bowls---(apparently old people tend to think alike, and hate to think of things outside starving. We have some rather well-fed ferals, and still not many rodents.) I'm well aware that had she not gotten separated from mom, she would not be cuddling with a toy. She is six months old, and unneutered, she would likely be wondering around pregnant competing for food and safe places.
I reach down to pet her and get a sudden image of a gorilla with a kitten.
Koko, the handsigning gorilla loved kittens. In gorilla world, she was a regular cat lady.
Koko learned about 2,000 words in sign language. Other gorillas taught to sign, learned the same.
This is not less than most people use to express themselves on a day to day basis, though, depending on language and education, is probably less than what they have learned the meaning of.
The planet of the Apes idea, where a chimpanzee with genetic engineering has an advanced brain shows apes speaking and building and organizing.
Apes, without genetic engineering already use tools and problem-solve in the wild--but the wild is wild, dangerous, so not so much energy is given to having long, emotional discussions, and more is spent on organizing the community for the safety and survival of the group.
In the wild, the biggest and toughest is boss and everyone else is rather at the Alpha's mercy.
If you go to an area of town full of homeless people, similar behavior occurs. Very little concern is placed on the young having toys or friends, all is placed on trying to survive and stay safe. And---the biggest, meanest, toughest is the boss.
This always makes me imagine myself with a full coat of fur, and with that fur, no need for clothes to stay warm, and---here is the real winner--no need for a bra.
At some point, hairlessness became a factor in humans attracting a mate.
Don't get me wrong, I come from a pretty hairy family, but these days, the men some manscaping kings.
Genetically speaking, hairy and unhairy don't really cause a huge difference in survival of the individual. More hair would be warmer in the cold, but cats and dogs with thick, fluffy coats use that fur to shed heat also by allowing air ventilation between the outer hair surface and the skin (like trees do in a forest, the sun hits the tops, the air circulates through the trees and the ground remains cooler).
Hairless dogs, and cats are at the mercy of the elements: hotter in the heat, sunburn, windburn, wetter in the rain, colder in the cold. They just don't make allergic people cough and snort as much or shed as much on the furniture.
Thus, it makes sense that, just like those hairless pets, the human choosing of mates was based on an increased sense of a attraction to hairlessness. Was it a need to not "look like and animal"? Was it a fashion statement? Did women not want their partners shedding on the couch?
I've known a few people that were quite sure total body baldness would be a perk---based on nothing but stopped up bathroom drains.
But, the actual direction I was going was that we humans are living mostly in the lap of luxury. We mostly don't have to fight for a safe place to sleep--unless we are homeless or in a war zone or a prison. We mostly don't have to fight for enough to eat. (We are a malnourished nation filled with obese junkfood eaters, but we have plenty to eat, sadly, the poorer you are, the more likely you are to be eating the worst salty, sugary, transfat concoctions on the planet--brought to you by dollar stores in food deserts. A friend showed me the bag her child was given on Friday--all the kids in the school were automatically placed on school lunch due to the general poverty of the area, so they were sending the kids weekend food--no starving kids allowed--the bag was full of the worst junkfood I'd ever seen, not only salt, sugar, processed and transfatted to increase shelf live, but the packaging was so old it was fading--no vitamins left in that, if there ever were any)
And these days, the leader is not the biggest or strongest physically, but the richest and most powerful from a political/business perspective. I'm not sure that is at all better.
So, today, I'll periodically talk like Curious George, remind myself that the reason we humans talk and other apes don't is not intelligence but vocal chords--we have them, other apes don't, try very hard to use more than 2,000 vocabulary words in my conversations.
I feel pretty pampered right now.
I reach down to pet her and get a sudden image of a gorilla with a kitten.
Koko, the handsigning gorilla loved kittens. In gorilla world, she was a regular cat lady.
Koko learned about 2,000 words in sign language. Other gorillas taught to sign, learned the same.
This is not less than most people use to express themselves on a day to day basis, though, depending on language and education, is probably less than what they have learned the meaning of.
The planet of the Apes idea, where a chimpanzee with genetic engineering has an advanced brain shows apes speaking and building and organizing.
Apes, without genetic engineering already use tools and problem-solve in the wild--but the wild is wild, dangerous, so not so much energy is given to having long, emotional discussions, and more is spent on organizing the community for the safety and survival of the group.
In the wild, the biggest and toughest is boss and everyone else is rather at the Alpha's mercy.
If you go to an area of town full of homeless people, similar behavior occurs. Very little concern is placed on the young having toys or friends, all is placed on trying to survive and stay safe. And---the biggest, meanest, toughest is the boss.
This always makes me imagine myself with a full coat of fur, and with that fur, no need for clothes to stay warm, and---here is the real winner--no need for a bra.
At some point, hairlessness became a factor in humans attracting a mate.
Don't get me wrong, I come from a pretty hairy family, but these days, the men some manscaping kings.
Genetically speaking, hairy and unhairy don't really cause a huge difference in survival of the individual. More hair would be warmer in the cold, but cats and dogs with thick, fluffy coats use that fur to shed heat also by allowing air ventilation between the outer hair surface and the skin (like trees do in a forest, the sun hits the tops, the air circulates through the trees and the ground remains cooler).
Hairless dogs, and cats are at the mercy of the elements: hotter in the heat, sunburn, windburn, wetter in the rain, colder in the cold. They just don't make allergic people cough and snort as much or shed as much on the furniture.
Thus, it makes sense that, just like those hairless pets, the human choosing of mates was based on an increased sense of a attraction to hairlessness. Was it a need to not "look like and animal"? Was it a fashion statement? Did women not want their partners shedding on the couch?
I've known a few people that were quite sure total body baldness would be a perk---based on nothing but stopped up bathroom drains.
But, the actual direction I was going was that we humans are living mostly in the lap of luxury. We mostly don't have to fight for a safe place to sleep--unless we are homeless or in a war zone or a prison. We mostly don't have to fight for enough to eat. (We are a malnourished nation filled with obese junkfood eaters, but we have plenty to eat, sadly, the poorer you are, the more likely you are to be eating the worst salty, sugary, transfat concoctions on the planet--brought to you by dollar stores in food deserts. A friend showed me the bag her child was given on Friday--all the kids in the school were automatically placed on school lunch due to the general poverty of the area, so they were sending the kids weekend food--no starving kids allowed--the bag was full of the worst junkfood I'd ever seen, not only salt, sugar, processed and transfatted to increase shelf live, but the packaging was so old it was fading--no vitamins left in that, if there ever were any)
And these days, the leader is not the biggest or strongest physically, but the richest and most powerful from a political/business perspective. I'm not sure that is at all better.
So, today, I'll periodically talk like Curious George, remind myself that the reason we humans talk and other apes don't is not intelligence but vocal chords--we have them, other apes don't, try very hard to use more than 2,000 vocabulary words in my conversations.
I feel pretty pampered right now.
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