Thanksgiving is behind us, and we survivedâmostly. Now comes the gauntlet: property taxes, then Christmas, then insurance, and after that, more taxes. Itâs the same series of events I mention every year, all bunched into a short stretch so we can really feel the crunch. The holiday seasonâwhen money takes its own holiday. After that, though, itâs mostly smooth sailing for the rest of the year.
Back to Thanksgiving. At the house in Georgia, tucked away in a cellular dead zone, I had a plan this year. I bought a cellular booster to get a signal inside. I didnât set it up quite right, but it worked well enough. I tried to stream the Dallas/Kansas City game, but that was a no-go. Still, the plan had promise: I connected a hotspot to the boosterâs signal, which gave us internet. My theory on why it failed? I hadnât accounted for the several young girls who gathered in the living room, drawn to those three bars of signal and happily using up the bandwidth. Câest la vie. Next year Iâll do better.
My wife and her sisters all said the same thing about the gathering: âIt was something else this year!â They were exhausted. The unofficial estimate was about 50 people, though I think it was more, with different groups drifting in and out. Hard to keep track. Most were family and friends, but not everyone was familiar. Kids played football in the yard, while some adults held a red-cup side party on the edges. And just like that, weâll do it all again in a year.
âThanksgiving DayâLet all give humble, hearty and sincere thanks, now, but the turkeys.â âMark Twain
âIt must be a poor reception area⊠he seems to have shut down completely!â âCartoonStock
"The sun rises behind a mass of dark, heavy clouds, its light breaking through in molten streaks of orange, red, and gold. The sky itself becomes a fiery canvas, where shadow and brilliance wrestle for dominance. The clouds glow at their edges like embers, while their centers remain brooding and deep.
In the lower right, a vertical wood pile juts out of the ocean, silhouetted against the blaze of morning. Weathered and stark, it stands like a sentinel offshore, a quiet witness to the dayâs first light. Its presence anchors the scene, reminding us of the human touch against the vastness of nature.
There is no shoreline visibleâonly sky, cloud, and the upright silhouette rising from the water. The atmosphere feels charged yet still, as if the Gulf itself is holding its breath while the sun forces its way into morning. It is a moment of reckoning between night and day, shadow and flame.
Well, we got back home yesterday evening. Itâs Sunday today, which means Charlie (my dog) has to spend one more night in the slammer. Iâll be rescuing him first thing in the morning.
Before we left, I told you about that squirrel who had gotten into the attic of our little Georgia house and chewed holes in the waterlines. We had those replaced on Monday, so Thanksgiving food prep could finally begin on Tuesday.
That same day, a wildlife specialist from our exterminator company came out and sealed the house so critters couldnât get back in. He installed a clever little trap-door contraption on one side of the roofâdesigned so anything inside could get out, but nothing could get back in. Iâd never thought about something like that before, and it was surprisingly interesting.
Tuesday evening, just at dusk, my wife and I were wrapping up for the day and had just gotten into the car whenâwho do we see? Mr. Squirrel himself, bouncing across the yard toward the house and up to the roof. We watched as he tried to get back in, only to discover he couldnât. It was almost as if he saw us leaving and thought, âWell, nowâs my chance to sneak back inside.â
The next day, my sister noticed a leak spraying against a back window. Turns out the exterminator had accidentally nicked a water line that ran along the outside of the house to the kitchen. I called the plumbers back, and they were kind enough to fix it without charging us extra.
Itâs a small cinderblock house with a very low roof, and there are plenty of places where things like that can happen.
âHome is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.â â Robert Frost
âIn the hustle of life, be like a squirrel: playful, curious, and always seeking the next adventure.â â Henry David Thoreau
"A single Gaillardia aristata, or blanket flower, bursts into radiant bloom. Its petals blaze with deep crimson red at the base, fading into bright golden yellow tips that glow like tongues of fire reaching outward. At the heart of the flower lies a densely packed disc of burnt orange and dark brown, textured like a woven tapestry or a ceremonial drum, anchoring the bloom with earthy gravity.
The petals curve gently, as if caught mid-motion, radiating in perfect symmetry around the center. Their fiery hues contrast against the surrounding green leaves and stems, which are soft, serrated, and slightly fuzzy. The background is scattered with dry grass and twigs, a rustic stage that makes the flowerâs brilliance even more striking.
Happy Black Friday to those who celebrate! As a young holiday not much has been done to build the lore of Black Friday.
What iconic mascot started BF?
How did the Pilgrims celebrate BF?
What lessons will we learn in the Peanuts Black Friday Holiday Special?
How can family be a part of this holidays messaging?
I knew the power was about to go out when I heard wind gusts make a brief rumble. A moment later it did. Around 6pm on #ThanksgivingđŠ is probably among the worst times for power to go out, with many households serving holiday dinner. But power uptime is less than 99% over the year in this neighborhood, with trees near power lines. Nearly half the houses already had backup generators of some kind. I suspect a bunch more will get them now because of the timing of this outage. #weather#ORwx#PNW
I've watched enough #NFL over the years to realize it's simply a #tax deduction for the owners now.
A bad commercial with slaves taking any position you pay them to take.
Tax welfare for the extremely wealthy and the greater the NFL contract, the larger the deductible.
(NFL spam bots) #Slavery #Thanksgiving #NewsRewind
The annual gathering, held since 1979, carries several layers of meaning, beginning with the fact that #Alcatraz is within the traditional Ramaytush Ohlone territory. During the event, the council shares the âtrue historyâ of the first #Thanksgiving: According to the #Wampanoag Tribe of Massachusetts, that inaugural 1637 holiday was declared by colonizers to give thanks for the massacre of hundreds of #Pequot#NativeAmericans. #NativeAmerican
Voyager scene. Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct adjunct of Unimatrix-01, is seen up close absolutely devouring a big ol' turkey leg like some kind of vicious animal. It's one of those tin foil wrapped Renaissance festival turkey legs, absolute unit. Closed caption reads: (ravenous growling)
this #NationalDayOfMourning, give money to Indigenous people instead of celebrating genocide! here's 2 artists in need; you can purchase their work below.
Indigenous People's Thanksgiving Sunrise Ceremony- âSights and sounds from this morning's Indigenous people's sunrise ceremony on Alcatraz, commemorating the 1969 occupation and community resilience.â ~San Francisco Standard #Indigenous#Thanksgiving#Alcatraz
Top-down view of Thor, a fluffy grey and white bicolor half-Ragdoll cat, lying on his back on a cream blanket on a grey sofa. Next to him is Loki, an orange tabby cat sitting in the Loaf position. Thor is looking up atchu with love and gratitude in his heart.
Here it is, my annual #Thanksgiving Gantt chart. The only way I can cook a massive feast for ten people and not need to be hospitalized from stress.
All my tasks are broken down by time so that nothing gets left behind. I just finished all the 11am stuff, and can sit down and doomscroll for 20 minutes with a clear conscience.
A page from a dotted notebook showing a Thanksgiving Gantt chart. Columns show dishes to be cooked and rows are time slots from 11am to 6pm. The sidebar has bullet items describing detailed tasks by time.
My sister shared with me some retro-futuristic/mid-century mod Christmas cards from Etsy. I looked at them decided to create some elements by hand in Illustrator for my future use. Fifteen minutes later I had a cat, some basic shapes, and a color pallet. #Thanksgiving
retro-futuristic mid-century mod Happy Thanksgiving image with a black cat.