First Day of Winter

   Today is the shortest day of the year.  Yippee.  Now they can start getting longer.  I am more than ready.  At least the sun was out for part of the day and the temp was above 50.   It was a great day to work on getting the trailer loaded for our trip.  We leave Thursday morning, the day after Christmas so there isn't much time, two holiday days and two non ones.  I
   Where the trailer is parked I can put out two of the three slides and so I did today.  With the bedroom slide out we can get access the area under the bed and the dresser drawers, so I have most of my clothes packed.  I rearranged the lower storage area that is sometimes called the basement  and loaded it with items that we will need for our 6 months away.  The basement contains an olio of items (a crossword frequent flyer) including swimming gear, satellite dishes ( yes, I have two), many tools  and equipment used by us RV types.  When I am loading, I always play the game "Should I take it or leave it at home?"   "Am I going to need this item this year?"  So I take some items and leave others.

The Press Club

The Press Club (2621 SE Clinton St.) is a small restaurant/wine bar/club in the eclectic, hipster(ish) area of south east Portland.  We went there last Saturday night to listen to music by the fun band, Green Tamborine, which covers 60's songs that everyone can sing along with.  The music was great, especially if you enjoy a fabulous mandolin.  The idea of a mandolin ( and sometimes a violin) in a 60's rock band may sound odd, but once you have heard it, you will be won over.
  The food was as good as the music.  R and I split a mushroom turkey bagguette and crepe that were very good.  If you want a fun place to spent some time, eat a little food, drink a beer or glass of wine and listen to a varying line-up of music, I recommend this place.  Look of Green Tamborine at your local pub as well.  We had so much fun taht we didn't get back to Canby until December.

Black Friday

   No, I am not going out to the storewide battle sites today.  I saw a coupe of ads that had tempting pricies on a few things, but I just couldn't bring myself to braving the mauradering hordes that line up at the front doors for the three or four TVs that are "in stock".  I may glance at the online prices of a few sites to see if they look interesting.  Thinking about the surge that Google and Amazon have on their sites this week-end, the federal government might have been better off hiring them to handle the medical system start-up.
   R and I are going to accompany our granddaughter to the theater and be "Frozen" for an hour or two.  That should be fun.  Good luck to you who are shopping during this week-end.

Thanksgiving Week

   I remember spending Thanksgiving at my aunt's house.  Everyone was there.  Turkey was cooked there. Everyone else brought something.  My Mom brought Scalped Corn, a corn hotdish baked in the oven.  In addition to the turkey, there were many tiems including stuffing, mashed potatoes, turkey gravy, ambrosia salad, green salad, green beans, fresh baked rolls, cranberries that still showed the ungulations from the can.  All good and yummy Midwestern comfort food.  Dessert was a bit later, pumpkin pie, of course, with freshly whipped cream.  Maybe another pie as well.
   The afternoon was spent either watching football on TV ( Texas/ Texas A&M, or the pros, Detroit Lions or the Cowboys) or playing board games.  I remember Sorry, Parcheesi, Flitch, Checkers.  I didn't realize it at the time, but my aunts and uncles were opposed to card games for religious reasons which were never mentioned.
   We went home in the early evening, after consuming the warmed up leftovers, which were as good, if not better, than the first time.
  
  There was never a thought of shopping, or of being anywhere else.

November 22, 1963

50 years ago.
I remember what I was doing that day.  I was sitting in Mrs Jones' senior English class, when the announcement came over the claasroom intercom.  Everything stopped.  The world, or at least my immediate world, stopped.  The room became silent.  Mrs Jones was as dumbfounded as the rest of us.  A few quiet slobs broke the silence, then low talking, then everyone was asking questions at once.  A raised arm and a stern look silence the room again as the intercom went on, telling the awful story of the end of a life, the end of an era, and the turning of a very large page in the history book.

  As I watched CBS This Morning, recalling that day, my mind went back as well.  That day was followed by several more days of almost constant TV watching.  I remember the long funeral march,  the caisson bearing the casket to the cemetary, the shots of the Jackie and the two little children standing in the cold of Arlington.

Saturday Nov 16,2013

Happy birthday to my bride today.  She is as beautiful as when we
married.

We are celebrating by hosting our son and his family for lunch.  It is the first time the whole family will be at our new house.  It will be fun.  Tonight we are volunteering at the Lantern Tours at Fort Vancouver.  It will be our third time in costume.  I have my speaking part in the kitchen as before, but this is the first time the R has a lines to say.  She is Amelia Douglas tonight.  In the skit, Amelia is 33 years old.  I am sure she can pull it off.  Break a leg, Honey.

Finally got our Direct TV installed.  I was dreading it because every time you deal with them there seems to be a hassle.  Lat week it was because the installer needed the trailer moved so that he could get the ladder up properly.  He also said that we needed to have the TV in position that we were going to use for the duration.  Well, we plan on buying a larger TV, but just haven't done it and may not before we head for Arizona.  The prices will probably be lower by the time we return anyway.

Good friends from South Lake Tahoe came by to see us yesterday.  It was great to talk, laugh, and eat Thai food.  We will see them again in May, 2014.

Less then a week until Thanksgiving.  Where is the time going?  R has already attended several Holiday Bazaars.  Yipes !  More to come, no doubt.

November

Wow, the cold temps and rain tell me that fall is fully here.  Halloween was fun.  We had nearly 100 kids come to our door on Halloween night.  It is the most we have ever had.  Up to that night, 36 was the household record.  It makes a difference when you do not live on a cul de sac.
 
We did not give out candy this year.  Instead, our "trick or treat"ers received a glow-in-the-dark bracelets  They seemed to be happy with them.  The parents were too.  Several told us so.

We are thinking it is time get a bigger TV.  Our current one is 27 inches.  OK now what?  Plasma, LED, edge lighting, back lighting.  And then what size screen?  47", 49", 50", up to 80" and maybe even bigger.   The larger ones are out because we don't have a wall big enough or a wallet big enough either.  So the search begins.......