Thanksgiving Day weekend wrapup

Thumbs up for the long holiday weekend. Thanksgiving Day dinner with sister Doreen and her family was terrific. On our way Carol, Ian and I picked up my mother. Both my brothers, Dennis with his girl friend Deb, Dave and their families were there and though she wasn't able to have dinner with us sister Kathy, her daughter with her fiancee, Joe, stopped by for a visit later after dinner. Jimmy, Kathy's son was able to join us for dinner. Besides the traditional menu items from turkey to pies we had parsnips and a pumpkin soup that Carol made. The wines were provided by the family connoisseur, Dennis. I enjoyed being so immersed with family that I forgot to take any pictures and come to think neither did anyone else.

Friday Ian and I mostly hung around the house as the day became very rainy while Carol joined her sisters Lois and Elaine with her grandson Brock to go to a craft fair then a gift shop followed by lunch at the Maine Bean. Ian and I did eventually venture out to run a couple of errands. That evening we watched this week's Netflix DVD, Star Trek. Great SciFi scenes and the story was good enough to make it worthwhile.

Saturday was a trip to the IKEA in Stoughton, MA which is south of Boston. Carol has been there a couple of times so we decided to make a day of it so she could show Ian and I some of the furniture items she's interested in getting plus we did pickup some stuff while we were there. We had a good time browsing our way through the place. We had nice lunch in the cafeteria they have and Carol even convinced me we could use a chaise lounge love seat combo. Go figure.

Here Ian and Carol are checking out

workspace tables and shelves.

This is the view leaving IKEA.

Carol basking in the euphoria

of a visit to IKEA.

Today Ian returned to campus and will be back in a couple of weeks or so for the holiday/semester break. Carol and I have been doing a variety of things as we bring the long the weekend to a close. Lots to do at work this week though I'm hoping to snatch a day off here and there leading up to Christmas.

Time filled completely

Thanksgiving moments linger

More tidings to come

Happy Thanksgiving Day

Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving Day and safe travels wherever you may go to celebrate. We'll be having dinner with my sister Doreen's family as will most of my siblings and their families. On the way there we'll pick up my mother (sorry, she doesn't do a "turkey" cake, see Easter blogs). I'm extra pleased that I'm not suffering from a cold malady as I have had at the last two holiday gatherings held at Doreen's. Puts a bit of a damper on things.

Ian arrived home from UNH for the Thanksgiving break. Nowadays things at the gatherings are quite different with most of the nieces and nephews being young adults involved in college, jobs etc. Still a few are around the 8 to 12 age group.

Special holiday thoughts are for sister Judi in Florida and her family as well as Carol's brother Greg in Texas and his family.

Cool autumn breezes

family voices greeting

warm in the moment

Tree Work

A beautifully mild November weekend is upon us, Carol and I have taken advantage of it by taking down a backyard tree. Though nice to look at in the summer it is a bit of a scrub tree with gnarly branches, leaves that turn dark brown and curl up before dropping to the ground and become more litter than the spectacle of autumn's regular offerings. Our weekend project of late has been installing new post and rail fencing, the scrub tree had a lean which brought it over part of where the fencing will pass. I felt that as the years pass by the tree was positioned in such a manner that weather or disease might bring it down resulting in damaging our project.

Weapon of choice for the job - my trusty Craftsman electric chainsaw and a hundred feet of extension cord.

Appeared to be a straight forward job and it went well enough but for a simple looking tree there sure was a mess of branches created as I cut it up into brush pile fodder.

Time for the pooches to inspect the carnage. Our cat Scotia spent the day napping in the house (go figure). She occasionally would show her tree climbing prowess on this particular specimen so as she meandered out this evening she may be wondering what heck had been going on while slumbering on the couch.

Japanese culture

My friend over at Five Reflections along with his wife like to dabble in Haiku's, a form of Japanese poetry. It's an intriguing form of writing that I remember from High School and when 5R blogged about them I posted one in the comments with a nod to my blog. This past weekend I posted one that was a more straight forward creation.

Winter chill beckons
Snowflakes soft upon the air
Drift downward silent

~inspired by the winter weather preview

we experieced last week.

A-1 November weather

Sunny and warm November weekend. Did some outdoor yardwork and Carol worked inside winterizing the windows then gave me a hand putting up some of that fencing we brought home a couple of weeks ago. Temperatures were in the 60s today which had me reminiscing of a November day 27 years ago on a similarly warm day when Carol, Lois and I from a kit built a utility shed on the land that Carol and I eventually built our house on. Funny thing is, from lack of use the now "old shed" has fallen into disrepair and has been taken over by ants and mice. When I get a chance I need to tear it down as it's a property liability.

Carol and Lois doing a little roofing back in
the day before "do-it-yourself" was cool.

Out there on the fringe again

I've been much absorbed recently reading Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. I'm about 3 quarters through it and the story has been building constantly to an event of immense proportions. This is deep space, far into the future stuff, gritty yet sophisticated. This is not a happy book, grim work is afoot in a story that transpires over 3 timelines that span over 40 years as the main characters finally come together for each of their own purposes. I am totally blown away reading this and it is Reynolds' first published novel (2000). I bought the book used for $2 from a bookrack on the sidewalk outside a bookstore in Portland, great value considering it contains over 200,000 words. I've been working my way through it for a month now as my reading time consists of a few minutes here and there with the occasional half hour or so thrown in. I will follow up on other of Reynolds work which includes sequels to this book.