Thanksgiving and the days leading up to it

It’s been a busy week. While we have gathered at my daughter’s house for Thanksgiving for at least fifteen years, either in the city or here in the country, this year everyone is coming here again, same as last year. Grocery shopping done and housecleaning started on Monday, food prep and more house cleaning on Tuesday, more food prep and house cleaning and cranberry sauce and pie making on Wednesday. I made a chocolate fudge pecan pie, having been inspired by Mary Moon. I dug out my Aunt Mimi’s heritage very basic seven ingredient recipe with minimal instructions and no sister to ask about it, my first time to make this pie. It turned out a little over cooked even though I set the timer for the lower end of the cooking time, and then at dinner I learned from my daughter, who has made it before and did ask her aunt about how to make it, that I was supposed to melt the butter and sugar and chocolate together, not just the butter and chocolate, which I didn’t do. It was still fudgey and rich if a little sugary crunchy against the pie crust. Oh well, next time.

Yesterday I put together and baked the dressing and the butternut squash and cranberry casserole. 

Sarah will bring the rest of the food; turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, broccoli rice casserole, green beans, mashed potatoes with a small vegan version, brussels sprouts, eggplant; Autumn will make and bring the dinner rolls.

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We were expecting 10 adults and one three year old but Robin and her boyfriend got delayed at his mother’s house and Audra and Paisleigh were stuck in Arkansas where she had gone to visit her family last weekend and Mikey elected not to join us. It ended up being just the six of us; Marc and I, Sarah and Mike, and Jade and Autumn who came from Austin, and way too much food. It was a fun evening sitting around the table eating way too much with no drama.

After four full days, I’m being a couch potato today. I'll get back out in the yard tomorrow.

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I have a correction on my object #3 post. Marc reminded me that my father not only co-signed the loan papers, he loaned me the 10% down payment so the loan was for $17,100 plus interest. Still an astronomical amount to me at the time. He never asked me to pay that money back but it all worked out later when my siblings and I bailed our parents out of a financial bind many decades later that they never paid back. Also, an addition. I forgot to add that Marc and I got married in that house, a quick little ceremony by a friend and then a big party.

object #3

My house. This is the oldest picture I have of the house from the late 1970s.

I bought this house in the summer of 1975 with a Fannie Mae loan and my father, who co-signed the papers and loaned me the 10% of the $19,000 purchase price needed for the down payment. I was 25, had just started my little studio doing etched glass, and was scared spitless that I had just signed a paper that indebted me for $17,100 plus interest. The payments were less than $200 a month. I wasn’t able to take possession of it until October as the old woman needed the time to pack up and move to Arizona to live with her daughter. By then Marc and I were together but he didn’t move in until the following year.

I loved this house on sight. It was about a hundred years old when I bought it and was in good shape, solid, built of first cut timber with shiplap on all the interior walls which was so hard you couldn't hammer a nail into it, had to drill a little hole first; three bedrooms, two baths, 10’ ceilings, 10” baseboards, lots of windows with diamond mullions, deep eaves, hardwood floors; the plumbing was old and Marc spent many years under the house repairing broken pipes, the wiring was inadequate such that in one part of the house if too many things were on I would blow the breaker when I tried to vacuum, and drafty with no insulation. After the first winter or two we put insulation in the attic. But I loved that 1,250 square foot house. We got married in that house, it sheltered us, we raised our two children in that house, we operated our studio out of the two car garage. 

We finally sold it in 2014 for many reasons…nearly 40 years of living hand to mouth on an artist’s income was not good for an old house that needed more attention than we could afford, the ignored inner city neighborhood was getting gentrified and property taxes were becoming unaffordable, the new people moving in felt us long time residents were bringing their property values down, and we basically had been living and working under the radar of the city and the neighborhood was coming under the scrutiny of city inspectors with all the new construction…but those of you who have been reading here for a long time know how hard it was for me to let go of it even though we were spending less and less time here. We had moved out to the house we're in now, coming in only three days a week to work in the studio when we had work.

We sold the property to a small home builder who promised to move the house off the property if possible (it wasn’t), promised to save the trees and build a single family home (he didn’t). He tore the house down but was overextended I guess because he sat on the property for a year and then sold it to a developer who clear cut the lot cutting down all the trees including the 30+ year old magnolia we had planted, and built two ugly lot line townhouses.

mid-1980s, daughter Sarah standing by the front door.

2003

Also 2003, the backyard and the small extension off the garage/studio which we had just finished rebuilding one wall at a time because termites had eaten the bottom 12” of the frame and the only thing holding the walls up was the sheetrock and metal siding.

2012, we were living out in Wharton by then coming in only to work and our son and daughter-in-law had moved into the main part of the house after we closed off part of it for a little apartment while we were there. 

2014, the year we sold it. 

This is from the post back in 2014 after we had gutted the shop, moved Big Mama, dug up plants or taken cuttings, hauled away every brick, paver, and concrete mortar block, and were leaving the house for the very last time.

“I walked through the house, my last time, and touched the walls and thanked it for giving us shelter and holding our family together. We weathered three direct hit hurricanes over the years in that house with nary a creak. I apologized for not taking better care of it and for abandoning it. I told it I loved it. Then I walked out and closed the door.”

a year, a busy day, a boob squishing

Wednesday, the 13th was a year since my sister’s death. I was awake in the wee hours right about the time her heart stopped. Hard to believe it’s been a year already. Robin brought me these pretty lilies.

I made a key lime pie last weekend. 

Well, just a regular lime pie since I didn’t use key lime juice. I’m going to make a chocolate fudge pecan pie next week. Mary Moon has inspired me so I dug out my Aunt Mimi’s recipe.

As usual I’m out of pocket on Thursdays since I have to leave early to get to Share then take the cardboard to the recycling container and then lunch and walk the dog and feed the outdoor kitties and then get ready for yoga and then go to yoga. No time for reading or writing blogs and Friday was busy too. 

Thursday was a madhouse at SHARE, not just with food orders but clothing, diapers, housewares, blankets, whatever they need that we have to give, and sorting through and putting away the donations that come in. Every year Jan orders turkeys from the food bank to give out the Thursday before Thanksgiving and two of the churches made up and delivered bags with other stuff with which to make a Thanksgiving meal (don’t know exactly what because I had not one minute to look and see what was in them). The turkeys and bags are first come first serve for those that are eligible for the full service food order which people can only get once every three months. When I got there at 9 the little area where people wait to be interviewed was already packed. Last I heard the sign-in list had 45 names. I have no idea how many food orders we filled because I never left my station except to get stuff from the back storeroom if there was no one not busy to get it for me. We started with 32 turkeys and at some point Jan left to buy more though I’m not sure how many, over a dozen certainly, and we still ran out before the last few food orders. Word must have gone out that we were giving away free turkeys because we had a number of people pull up to the back where we load cars asking for the free turkey. Nope, sorry, doesn’t work that way, you have to qualify at the front. Anyway, the ladies up front usually lock the door at 12:30 to give us enough time to be done with everyone by 1 pm when we officially close. And so they did yesterday but there were still enough people waiting that we didn’t fill the last few food orders until 1:30 and Jan and Patti helped with those. And then I flew out of there.

My PC doctor had ordered a mammogram and an ultrasound on my left boob because I’ve had a persistent sore spot there. Isn’t sore every day but when it is it’s always in the same spot. She did a hands on exam. Do you feel anything I asked, maybe she replied. She didn’t seemed all that concerned, relieved my fears of cancer saying cancer doesn’t cause pain (well until it’s so far advanced you’re dying and why it’s called the silent killer) but she ordered the tests to check things out. The imaging center is in Sugar Land about 30 minutes away with clear traffic and still have to find a parking spot and they always want you there early so I had made the appointment for 2:30 Thursday afternoon thinking I would have plenty of time after SHARE closed to get there. I did get there in time and after a half hour or so after I checked in, a tech came out to tell us in the waiting room that their entire computer system had gone down and they didn’t know when it would come back up but they were working on it and there was nothing they could do until it came back up. I waited about 40 minutes and then left, they would call me to reschedule when the system came back online. I hadn’t been home long when they called to reschedule and fortunately they could get me in at 1:30 Friday. I’m happy to say both tests were clean, no evidence of cancer or anything else I should worry about, so yay!, but the doctor who came in to talk to me had no real explanation for the sore spot. Could be hormones even this far after menopause or transferred pain. I have had a lot of tinkering done this year. And I notice it less as time goes on. 

I used the bathroom there in the waiting room before I left and this sign was on the inside of the door.

Who sticks their hand down the toilet in a medical facility?

the weekend and departmental reports

The large clump of fall asters by the driveway is in full bloom

Saturday I cut two more cart loads of rose bush from the pile. Paisleigh helped me. Mikey and Audra and Paisleigh were over at the shop and when she sees me coming she runs toward me arms outstretched…Gramma! I’m Granny to my grandkids but Paisleigh informed everyone that, no, her grandmother, my daughter, was Granny and I was Gramma. Works for me. As I would cut the rose canes down to smaller size Paisleigh would put them in the cart, when she wasn’t trying throttle my poor patient Minnie in a hug that is. I probably have three more cart loads before I get it all transferred to the burn pile.

It rained Saturday night, not much, just enough to get everything wet and has continued to drop just enough water off and on to keep everything wet enough for the dog and cat to look out the open door and go…um, nope. It has put the kibosh on my yard work plans for the day which was more cart loads of rose canes and more weeding of overgrown flower beds. I did get the poppy seeds scattered and watered in and the last of the azaleas mulched with pine needles Saturday afternoon.

I suppose I could spend the day making progress on the book I’m reading which apparently I’ve lost interest in since I haven’t picked it up for almost a week.

As it turned out I did get my two cart loads of rose canes cut and tossed on the burn pile, that’s been my limit, two a day until it’s done, between light showers. Looks like just one more cart load left but now today, Monday, we are still having intermittent light showers and maybe a thunderstorm later. 

The crazy dreams continue with one turning very weird last night. I dreamed Marc and I had gone to doctor appointments, same practice different doctors, and when I was called in I left my phone and book with him. The woman doctor and I were on a friendly basis and we chatted and then decided to go get something to eat. She drove me to this big house kind of isolated with trees all around. It was a big house (not one I’ve visited in my dreams before) kind of rustic inside but comfortable. I asked her whose house it was and she said that she had given it to her kids but now she regretted it. We went in the kitchen and she fixed me a big bowl of chicken soup. I ate mine while she served up a bowl for herself. It was really good, like the best bowl of chicken soup I’d ever eaten. Then these two or three people burst in, her kids maybe, seemingly to rescue me. I couldn’t understand their concern. Did you eat the soup, they asked. Yes, it was good I told them. Did you see her eat any, they asked. No I hadn’t. It wasn’t chicken they said ominously, implying I was in danger. Then I started waking up thinking to myself, let’s have a different dream.

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From the Department of What The Fuck Did They Think Was Going To Happen…Trump won the farm country by a wide margin and now those same people are alarmed by Trump’s plans to disrupt the $1.5T food industry with the nomination of Kennedy to head Health and Human Services of which the FDA is a part and who they are calling ‘an absolute danger’ to the American farm industry. Kennedy is notoriously famous for embracing conspiracy theories, is anti industrial food corporations and modern farm practices. They are also suddenly concerned about Trump’s intended tariff driven trade war with China as well they should be since during his first term he basically destroyed American farmers’ markets which left corn and soybeans rotting in the fields or in silos and causing a lot of small farm bankruptcies. Trump was very vocal about his tariffs plan and his intention to appoint Kennedy to head HHS and they voted for him anyway. 

From the Department of How Good Do You Look on TV…(this next bit courtesy of Jeff Tiedrich) from the NY Times an article on how Trump is choosing his picks to head the agencies in his cabinet “Much of the action has taken place under the chandelier in the tearoom at Mar-a-Lago, where Mr. Trump surveys his potential Cabinet nominees on giant video screens. He flicks through shortlists that his transition team, led by the billionaire Howard Lutnick, has drafted over the past months. If Mr. Trump shows an interest in a candidate, the presentation is designed to allow him to immediately watch videos of the potential nominee’s TV appearances — essential for any would-be Trump cabinet official.”  No vetting, no background checks. What could possibly go wrong?

From the Department of Retribution…Trump’s transition team is making a list of the military officers, including generals, involved in the withdrawal from Afghanistan soon after Biden took office, which withdrawal was ordered and set up by Trump after he released 5,000 Taliban fighters and leaders, and is planning to set up a commission to determine if they can be court-marshaled for treason. Trump has called the withdrawal a ’humiliation’, a humiliation that he set up for Biden by withdrawing all but 5,000 American soldiers and releasing 5,000 Taliban whom the Afghanistan forces caved to out of personal fear. More to come from this department I’m sure as Trump has been very vocal about wanting to punish all those who have and do oppose him.

 

ordinary days

Monday afternoon I was to go in for a 3 month follow up ultrasound on my repaired femoral artery. Monday morning the office called and canceled, the tech was home sick. They would try and reschedule, squeeze me in, before my follow up office visit to get the results of the ultrasound on Wednesday morning. I heard nothing. Showed up Wednesday morning, explained to the receptionist what had transpired. She consulted with the tech. He had an appointment coming in soon but figured he could do the legs and schedule the aorta for later. I’m like, uh, aorta? No just the leg, the artery repair. We do both on everyone he says. Turned out it wasn’t just a look at the repair of the femoral artery, he did both legs from hip to feet, told me this would be the easiest test he did all day, that most people who come in have serious leg and circulation problems, and since he still had time, went ahead and did the aorta as well. Final report during the office visit with the doctor…some cholesterol but nothing to worry about, no blockages, repaired femoral artery good, good circulation but decreasing toward my feet which is normal and age related, no need to think about any intervention at this point, come back in six months and we’ll do it all again, and I’m released to do any activity I want. I didn’t tell him I was already doing every activity I wanted.

And then Wednesday evening I led the yoga class. Thursday was SHARE and a food delivery day from the regional food bank in Victoria. It was a small order because they just didn’t have very much on the list and I expect that to get worse as we get into Trump’s term. We got something like 28 turkeys to give out next week that she orders every year for the week before Thanksgiving but I’m not sure if they came from the food bank or elsewhere, and the food bank sent so many big bags of marshmallows that Jan made us all take home a bag whether we wanted them or not.

The past several days have been glorious blue sky days, mild temperatures and low humidity. Even dipped down in the 40s Thursday night. Today, Saturday is warmer and overcast and actually feels kind of like an early spring day. I’ve been working on cutting up the big pile I pruned off the monster rose bush, four mounded up cart loads on the burn pile so far and I don’t think I’ve even got half yet. finally got the back flowerbed weeded yesterday and ready to spread out the poppy seeds a friend gave me since mine have stopped volunteering back. That’s on the agenda for today.

Last night’s full moon rising.

I fixed egg foo yung, sort of a chinese omelet but ladled out and cooked like pancakes with a savory gravy, for dinner last night. 

I’ve made this a couple of times before and it always turned out well but not last night for whatever reason and the gravy never did really thicken enough and somewhere around midnight my intestines rejected it and I spent the next two hours racing to the bathroom. 

And just so I don’t end on that unpleasant note…dog and Cat.

coming to terms

imagige via https://futurefreespeech.org/reason-free-speech-is-under-attack-in-the-u-s-but-its-on-the-ropes-elsewhere/

After several nights in a row of little sleep and my physical day on Sunday I went to bed early, was asleep by nine and didn’t wake up until eight Monday morning. I woke up briefly several times enough to wonder what that fuck that dream was about and then back to sleep. Pretty useless Monday, even took a little nap. I wasn’t just physically tired but spiritually depressed. 

This is kind of long y’all but better to be aware than blindsided.

People who voted for Trump are upset because they are being blocked on social media and are losing friends because of who they voted for, for what they feel is just a difference of opinion. But they just don’t get it. This is not a difference of opinion. This is not about whether or not you think pineapple belongs on pizza. What they did, what they support is a difference in a moral base. When you vote for a man who is an adjudicated rapist and self proclaimed sexual assaulter, a convicted felon, a man who refused to accept his loss last election and tried to take it by force, a man who scoffs at the rule of law and sneers at the constitution, a man who ran on hate and sexism and racism and lies, a man who has told us in no uncertain terms that he wants absolute power like the dictators he admires, you are de facto saying you support all that. Voting for Trump and MAGAt politicians says you don't think women are equal or should have life saving health care or the same opportunities as men, that rape and general law breaking are acceptable, that you think certain groups of people do not deserve equal rights, that law abiding contributing valued members of a family and community should be deported instead of giving them legal status, that separating/stealing children from desperate parents looking for a better life is not despicable, that you prefer a repressive dictator over democracy, that you have no problem with rounding up millions of people and putting them in detention camps, that you have no problem with American troops being used against Americans on American soil to stifle dissent, that you are OK with the DOJ arresting anyone Trump wants because they opposed him. People can agree to disagree over opinions, we cannot over a fundamental difference in morality. So, no, we do not agree to disagree.

It doesn’t really matter what your excuse was for voting for Trump because by voting for Trump you also voted for all that he stands for and intends to do. It is small comfort that you will suffer along with the rest of us.

Sexist and racist attacks have sky rocketed on social media and texts to people’s phones. School districts are issuing warnings to parents about the increased sexism and racist attacks in schools.

Jesse Watters of Fox said that footage of ICE taking people from their homes will be hysterical. So Jesse, is that hysterical like the SS pulling Jews out of their homes and loading them on cattle cars or hysterical like the IDF pulling Palestinians out of their homes and shooting them?

Vivek Ramasmarmy (purposely mis-spelled) says people brought here as infants or very young children by their parents illegally, people who have no memory of their country of origin and no connection to it, who speak only English, who have no other identification other than American and American culture, who are productive tax paying residents with no criminal record, even those who have served or are serving in the armed forces must be deported.

Governor Abbott of Texas requires all hospitals as of November 1 to ask everyone seeking care about their citizenship status. No one is required to answer and you cannot be denied care regardless of your citizenship status. This is just one more avenue to identify people for deportation.

Tuesday the House voted on H.R. 9495 which gives Trump’s Treasury Department the power to label any non-profit organization “a terrorist supporting organization” and strip it of its tax exempt status if Trump thinks it stands in the way of his authoritarian agenda. No oversight or justification needed. Just one more way he plans to stifle dissent.

The WSJ reports that Trump is drafting an executive order to create a board to purge the military of generals deemed unfit for leadership, in other words those who won’t follow Trump’s illegal orders.

Trump picked Pete Hegseth, a Fox News Channel show host of Fox and Friends, for Secretary of Defense, who says women don’t belong in combat roles and is opposed to the equity and inclusion measures in the Armed Forces. To say that the Pentagon is stunned at the pick of this inexperienced man to run the world’s largest and most powerful military is the understatement of the year.

While J. D. Vance is the elected VP it seems he holds the position in name only and Elon Musk is the de facto operating VP. Musk who is on good terms with Vladimir Putin and who has spoken with him numerous times over the last four years is a fixture at Mar A Lago and reportedly sitting in on phone calls Trump is receiving from other heads of state, calls which, by the way, are bypassing the State Department which monitors and records such communications.

Trump has announced a new department, which by law he does not have the power to create, headed by Musk and Ramaswamy, the Department of Government Efficiency “to liberate our economy” whose goal is to “pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” You can be sure that ‘wasteful expenditures’ will be everything that helps the common people and protects the planet. This purging of the government into a ‘smaller, more efficient version’, meaning one that will do what Trump says with no push back, is to be completed in two years. How many people are going to lose their jobs in the next two years?

Trump’s other picks for important positions like Mike Huckabee for Ambassador to Israel, an evangelical christian who doesn’t think Palestinians have any right to the West Bank (I hope your protest vote was worth it), Kristi Noem who shot and killed her untrained puppy for Secretary of Homeland Security, Marco Rubio for Secretary of State which seems designed to put his daughter in Law Lara Trump in Rubio’s senate seat, nazi Stephen Miller for deputy chief of staff for policy, Tom Homan of stealing children fame for border czar who is eager to deport millions of people, Elise Stefanik for United Nations ambassador, Lee Zeldin who has zero experience in environmental issues to head the EPA, and Susie Wiles who managed Trump’s campaign as chief of staff. 

What could possibly go wrong?

edit, from bad to worse…republicans control the House and Matt Gaetz who has been under investigation has been selected for Attorney General and Trump is trying to push his selections through without going through the Senate.

 

a birthday with old friends, monster rose bush tamed

Sunday I vowed to myself to stay off social media and focus my attention on happier things or at least things that need attending to. The county lifted the burn ban Thursday so torching the burn pile was on the agenda. Also make more progress on the book I’m reading. Maybe put my sewing machine away even though I could start on the skirt hidden in the fabric I bought for that purpose over a year ago and maybe start a new watercolor. 

Saturday we went to visit our friend Gene who lives in Hockley with his partner Brian. It was Gene’s 77th birthday and they were having a gathering of friends. Gene is my second oldest friend. I met him in the second half of 1977. Sarah was still an infant and I was going around to the few stained glass supply businesses trying to make contacts for if they ever had anyone asking about etched glass. One such business told me to try Gene’s little stained glass studio he had with two other guys so I went there and introduced myself. Gene went out on his own shortly after and we’ve been friends ever since. We did the Renaissance Festival together for about 6 years early in both our careers, we collaborated on projects now and then, put on exhibitions together, started the Houston Glass Artists Association, we supported each other in many ways and became lifelong friends. This picture, taken in 1978 of Marc and I and our baby daughter Sarah and Gene, was taken in Gene’s studio for an article about us in a local little publication as I recall.

You might remember that when Gene and Brian decided to leave Houston he moved the contents of his studio into our shop for storage while he had his house moved, got a well and septic installed, fixed the house up, built the private deck out front, and finally, finished out the interior of the metal building erected for his studio, a process that took about three years. His place in the piney woods is so gorgeous, everything he does is done artistically, even his yard tools behind the studio are hung artfully. The man has an incredible touch, very serene with plantings and fountains scattered about on his acre, a small pond, bird feeders, a garden. He built a sweet little greenhouse for his tropicals and orchids and he did it, does it all himself, with found material and objects. He’s amazing.

So it was a nice gathering seeing friends we haven’t seen since our last open house at Dick and Kathy’s glass blowing studio right before covid. Bill and Larry for whom I did my very first etched glass commission were there, Dick and Kathy who were very involved in the arts and who were instrumental in dragging us our of our cave and into the light of the public, various other artists we have known and associated with over the years like Liz, Lesley, Michael, and Daniel.

And when we left I stuffed the car with 6 huge bags of pine needles, had to lay down the back seats to get them all in, to put around my azaleas instead of the pine bark mulch I’ve had to use.

Sunday I did not read, did not sew, did not start a new painting but I did stay off social media. My grandson Mikey came and got the original heavy plastic formed stairs that came with Pam’s house that we never got rid of after Rocky built the little front porch and steps on the house to use for the travel trailer he and Audra and Paisleigh are living in. While he was here he torched the burn pile for me. Since I had been waiting to heavily prune the monster rose bush over there until we could burn I got my baby chain saw and worked for the next hour and a half. The days of the monster rose bush’s unrestrained growth are over. What is left is about one fifth or one sixth of what was. No before picture of course.

Trees and wild grapevine and virginia creeper had grown up in the solid thatch and had to be cut out. I’m going to keep it pruned and cleared from the ground so that Joe can mow and trim under it. I tried to find a recent picture but to no avail, apparently I didn't keep any of the pictures I took of it this year. This is what it looked like two years ago when I pruned enough of the bottom out so that I could get under there and clear out the trees and virginia creeper and had gotten even bigger. 

Later I spread out three of the bags of pine needles. Still have the other azaleas to do but they can wait until next weekend.

The sky Friday evening.