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.......

Volunteer.Gov

It is a very quiet morning in the visitor center at Fort Vancouver.  Nine visitors in two hours.  I would much prefer being busy to this.  That is one reason why we are going to move the trailer to our driveway in Canby this week.  Our new house has so many tasks on its "to do" list that we need to spend more time there in order to get them accomplished.

That being said, this is a good place to work.  The work is easy. The set-up for the volunteer is close by and all needs are there; 30amp service, water, sewer, and garbage.  Free laundry facilites are provided as well.  It is a metropolitan area so shopping is unlimited here in Vancouver, as well as in Portland acrtoss the river.  This area is a treasure trove for exploration, whether it is the coast of Oregon or Washington,  the mountains of the Cascades, the Columbia Gorge, or the deserts on the eastern parts of both states.  If you have thought about being a VIP (Volunteer In the Parks) this would be a good place to start.
    http://www.nps.gov/fova/index.htm

Monday Morning at the Fort

After a rainy Sunday morning, today dawned clear and cool.  This is the view looking Southwest out the window of the Visitor Center here at Fort Vancouver.  If you look carefully, you can see the actual fort in the distance with the I-5 bridge connecting Washington and Oregon is behind it.  This is our last week here with tomorrow, Tuesday, being the last workday.  We will still be volunteering for the Lantern Tours which happen on Saturday nights.  A time for some living history funT