• Tag Archives thanksgiving
  • Axel’s

    Samhain                                        Waning Thanksgiving Moon

    Kate, Annie and I ate Thanksgiving dinner at Axel’s Woodroast in Roseville.  This was a major production, a huge buffet and seating for family size parties in the ballroom.  The food was good, not gourmet, but good.  I actually had breakfast, more or less, a crepe, bacon, scrambled eggs, some asparagus, watermelon and a mixed green salad followed by two creme brulee tarts.  Our waitress was an old hand who stayed mostly out of the picture, showing up just when we needed things for the most part.

    I found the large number of people satisfying, as it mimicked the crowded Thanksgivings of my childhood.  I had the large number of people feeling without having to actually interact them.  Perfect.

    Kate’s in for a nap, the dogs have toys to play with and I’m going back to reading my Chinese mystery novel.

    Hope your afternoon is a good one, too.


  • Thanksgiving Eve

    Samhain                                                      Waning Thanksgiving Moon

    Grocery shopping this morning, the day before Thanksgiving.  Like traveling by air on a holiday.  Like going to see the Tower of London in July.  Like shopping on Black Friday.  I went early though and it wasn’t too bad.  There was the man with one turkey in his cart, a shocked disorientation on his face, his white hair wild.  A woman with black flats, a wool skirt below the ankle and a helmet like cloth hat strapped under her chin.  A woman and her mother, mom in a white faux fur coat, shiny cloth pants and dangly ear-rings with zircon or diamond but I’d bet zircon.  The clerk from Nevis.  I had a farm near Nevis.  Oh, where?  On Spider Lake.  Oh, a friend of mine has a resort on Spider Lake.  Did you find everything you were looking for?

    The message board had advertisements for guys offering snow plowing services.  I memorized a number, 227-9899, and called for a free estimate when I got home.

    Sleepy now, Latin this afternoon and evening, Thanksgiving tomorrow.  A restaurant meal for us this year, Axel’s Wood Roast in St. Paul.  Annie’s coming up.


  • Mary and Joseph (but, no Jesus)

    Samhain                        Waxing Wolf Moon                 Thanksgiving

    Joseph and Mary are here.  Mary came in to the train station in Anoka.  It was a very East Coast scene with folks waiting for others in the parking lot, a mist shrouding the street lights.  Joseph’s flight experienced a delay at Milwaukee and didn’t get in until 9:35 p.m.

    Let the cooking begin.


  • One-Hour Thanksgiving Meal

    21  bar steady 30.04  0mph NNW  windchill 21  Samhain

    New Moon (Moon of the Long Nights)

    Kate produced a wonderful, one-hour Thanksgiving meal.  Cornbread stuffing, turkey breast with a chili-rub and an herbal seasoning under the skin, mashed potatoes, our own green beans (canned) and sweated mushroom gravy. She explained sweated, but it passed over my head.  I was already in to the green beans and the cornbread stuffing.

    Tomorrow she wants to watch the Macy’s Parade because of her home town of Nevada, Iowa will have a horse team in it, someone her sister, BJ, knows.  Pretty exciting.

    I’m going to try an earlier bedtime again.  Surely I can reset my body clock.

    Happy Thanksgiving to you all.


  • Gratitude

    One sunny day in January, 2009 an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he’d been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the U.S. Marine standing guard and said, “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.”

    The Marine looked at the man and said, “Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.” The old man said, “Okay” and walked away.

    The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.” The Marine again told the man, “Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.” The man thanked him and, again, just walked away.

    The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the
    very same U.S. Marine, saying “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.” The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and said, “Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mr. Bush. I’ve told you already that Mr. Bush is no longer the president and no longer resides here. Don’t you understand?”

    The old man looked at the Marine and said, “Oh, I understand. I just love hearing it.”

    The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, “See you tomorrow, Sir.”

    thanks to Paul Strickland


  • The Ancient Trail of Gratitude

    quick note:  Boy, the pace of life accelerated with the coming of autumn.  This last week it felt like I’d gone back to full-time employment.  I’m glad the week-end is here.

    Mine is a small life, no encyclopedia entries or feistschrifts, no monuments.  Ordinary.  I’ve been lucky so far.  The major stumbles I made got turned around by mid-life.  Kate came along and made the journey forward companionable.  There are few friends, but good ones.  The things I do, I love.  Dig.  Plant.  Harvest.  Write.  Preach.  Tour.  Spend time with the kids and their kids.  Read.

    Thanksgiving is not a one-day holiday, but, rather, a life way, the ancient trail of gratitude.