It’s Cookie Central at our house this week. We started with the fussy ones: Frosted Sugar and Shortbread Cookie Sticks – to get them out of the way. They require frosting and sprinkles so take more time than others. Twelve more kinds to go. I even got YA onboard today!
When do you start your holiday baking (if you indulge)?
I stopped at the library on Black Friday to pick up a couple of books. Found these two scooters and helmets parked inside the entrance.
Jacque asked for a haiku day, so I thought I’d get us started:
Library scooters –
Someone is raising them right.
Hope for the future.
While America now knows the Friday after Thanksgiving as Black Friday, for the last couple of decades at our house it’s been Tree Friday. For many years this was the day that Child and I headed out to chop down a tree for the holidays. These days I head down to Bachmans (they have a 25% off fresh trees on Black Friday and they are really close by).
In fact, it was 7 years ago on Tree Friday that I got my nickname from Jacque. Dale had written that day a great bit about Black Friday and used some Shakespearean language to get us going. My bit was:
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the north and Hansen Tree Farm is the sun.
Open up, fair Tree Farm and await the crowds
Who, already stuffed and sleepy from yesterday
Swing saws and other implements of destruction.
Jacque came up with Verily Sherrilee that day.
So what about you? Taking part in Black Friday shopping? Online purchasing? Just taking it easy?
It seems to me that Thanksgiving has more expectations attached to it than any other day of the year. I like to read advice columns in the morning (makes me feel like I have a good handle on things); for a couple of weeks the columns have been filled with angst about Thanksgiving.
Grandma doesn’t want to host dinner and two of the daughters are throwing a fit because it will spoil the day. Uncle Joey always drinks too much and everyone is worried about whether he will spoil the day. Cousin Mary has a new boyfriend who is a vegetarian and everyone is worried his dietary needs will spoil the day. Grandpa won’t come because he has a new puppy that isn’t welcome and it will spoil the day. For so many people Thanksgiving seems to be encased in amber; it must be exactly as it’s always been and it can’t be spoiled.
As a person who moved away from home at an early age, got divorced and then became a single parent, I have never had a chance to cement a list of requirements to make Thanksgiving Day overly static. There is however, one thing that I have been in charge of for many years – the thankful project. I’ve done a paper Mayflower w/ little scrolls that people wrote on, I’ve done a large cut out turkey whose feathers became lists of what we’ve thankful for, I’ve done a large tree with leaves for the thankful thoughts. This year I’m doing a big poster board covered with square of different papers and have a handful of markers for everybody to write with. I love doing the thankful project as it really brings it home to me where my focus should be, rather than on whether the potatoes are the way I like them.
One of the things that I’ve written down for the last couple of years on the thankful project is “baboons” (which I then have to explain). I am beyond grateful that I’ve found a community of folks who are thoughtful, caring, sincere, well-read, funny… all these things and more. I’m thankful for this past year with you all on the Trail and looking forward to the year coming up.
No question today – just heartfelt thanks for all of you!
Yesterday I had to stop while a small flock of turkeys took their time crossing the road. Then today it was a fairly large gaggle of geese that slowed me up; I’ll admit I gave my horn a couple of quick toots to hurry them along.
It made me think about the animal crossing system that they have in Canada along Banff National Park. All along the Trans Canada Highway through the park, they built overpasses and underpasses for the animals to use. According to Parks Canada, they have documented hundreds of thousands of animal crossings and saved thousands of animals from becoming roadkill.
Apparently coyotes, cougars and black bears figured out the crossings the fastest. Grizzly bears and wolves took the longest. But no one answers my question. Did they just open them up and wait for the animals to give them a try or did they try to “train” wildlife, perhaps using bait? Maybe it was it just a “build it and they will come” kind of thing?
It occurs to me that I’ve had animals in my life that would learn something like this quickly, like the black bears and I’ve also had animals that would be trailing behind the grizzlies.
Have you had a particularly smart (or not) animal in your life?
Today’s post comes to us from Ben.
In class the other day, the teacher said, “Thirty percent of your life is doing things you don’t want to do. If you’re lucky.”
What do you think? I think it’s probably high for me in general. I know I am very fortunate to do what I love and have my own schedule. I’ve managed to cut a lot of the stuff I don’t like out of my life.
You may recall I’ve talked about the week of Christmas concerts in December and it all just makes me grumpy. That would be a time where 80% of my life is not what I want. But wait! There are changes afoot! New (temp) music teacher. Concert completely revamped! Not exactly sure what’s going on yet… the secretary compares it to herding chickens. But at least it will be different! (We keep reminding ourselves Change is Good!)
Is 30% high or low in your life?
We’ve just gone over the 6,000 followers mark. Makes me think about the beginnings of the Trial Balloon, then the Trail Baboon, Dale, Jim Ed and TLGMS.
Do you have a favorite Balloon or Baboon memory?
In a comment yesterday, Renee mentioned slogging through War & Peace and being glad she had seen a film version first. So now I have to tell MY War & Peace story.
I worked in the book industry for many years, in the now defunct B.Dalton chain. Back then (and I assume now as well) publishers did not want to pay to have mass market printing (small paperbacks) returned to them. It was cheaper to reprint than to pay for the shipping. In order to return mass markets we stripped the front covers off the books and sent those to the publisher for return credit. The strips (books with their covers stripped) were then disposed of at the individual stores.
Although strips were routinely destroyed, it was a perk of working at the bookstore that you were allowed to take strips home for free, as long as you didn’t get caught selling them or even giving them away. For many years, most of the books I read were coverless. Once when really purging the shelves, we ended up with strips of several classics, including a few copies of War & Peace. I took one home that day and after a few months, put it in the bathroom with my various magazines for casual bathroom reading. Since the strip was never going to go on my bookshelf, after every 10-20 pages, I would rip off the pages I’d finished and toss them.
It took me almost a year to read War & Peace this way and as the year went by, the book got skinnier and skinnier!
What reading material do YOU have in the bathroom?
When I work on the eggs, I need my background noise to be something that doesn’t distract me. I choose TV or movies that I know well, so that I can listen to them but not be tempted to look up too often. This past weekend that meant binge-watching the made-for-TV Perry Mason movies that were showing on the Decades channel.
I love Raymond Burr and the Perry Mason character so it was pleasant to see many of the movies again. As I watched them back to back, I began to think about the films versus the books by Earle Stanley Gardner. The original Perry Mason series in the 50s and 60s were based on the books, but the made-for-TV movies were pure fiction.
If a movie is made of a book, I usually try to read the book first – I like to know what the author wrote (vs. what a director wants me to see) and have my own pictures in my head before I end up at the cinema. Every now and then this strategy goes awry. When The Martian was coming out on the big screen, I knew that Matt Damon was the star so when I read the book, I did have him in my mind’s eye. However, the book is SO good that I have no intention of ever seeing the movie; I don’t want my inner vision spoiled. I wish I had done this a few other times (Shining Through by Susan Isaacs – do yourself a favor and skip the movie). I never went to see The Desolation of Smaug and I probably won’t be going to see A Wrinkle in Time.
What’s your favorite book to movie?
I love my job but I realized as I was driving up my driveway tonight that I feel a big relief on Friday evenings; it’s almost as if I’ve had a weight lifted off me. I think this means my body somehow knows I’m inching closer to retirement.
What are you up to this weekend?
Trail Baboon 