Thanksgiving 2010

Oh my goodness, what a lovely holiday time this has been!  David left for the Army in August of 2000 and that means the last time we would have had Thanksgiving together would have been 1999... 11 years ago.  Well, celebrating the holiday over with David, Samantha and Hanna in NC was a visit and holiday day that was just wonderful.

I took off on Wednesday at about 9 AM and the drive was terrible including a stretch of I-20 being shut down in Augusta for reasons unknown to me, but with everyone being shunted off the interstate by the cops after a long, long time sitting and creeping along the road.  I got to the kids house later than anticipated but safe and sound. 

Thursday began a bit cloudy and we did get some pretty good rain for a while but by the time it was time to cook the bird, things had cleared up and warmed up a bit as well.  Samantha had spent most of Wednesday cooking and getting things ready and continued on Thursday as well.  Hannah was having a good time picking what was left of Samantha's roses for a centerpiece.

Hannah preparing the roses by picking off most of the petals.  Perhaps it was the beer that made her do it.

Hannah had selected the 'eccentric dowager' look for the first part of the day, including the 'mink' coat.

David was going to treat me to his deep fried turkey which I looked forward to not at all.  I'd swear I had it before (not his) and even for me, a devout jerky lover, it was terrible.  Dried out... hard... totally tasteless.  Besides, I've never really cared for turkey.  But David was quite happy to be cooking it for me and I tried my very best not to damper his excitement.

Samantha and David looking so happy having the turkey cooker fired up and heating.  David couldn't find the thing you use to lower the bird into the oil -- and remove it -- but neighbor Donny came to the rescue that morning.  Oh yes, there's another little reason that they're looking so happy... they're letting people know that they're making another grandchild for me!!  Yep... Samantha found out recently that she's about 8-9 weeks along so there will another family member coming into this world somewhere around August 2011 :)  Hannah knew all about it and didn't spill the beans to me but she is very happy to be having a baby brother/sister on the way.  Good thing... there isn't much she can do about it!

The big time arrived and David got to cooking.  Here he lowers the bird into the perfectly-heated oil.  Giving credit where credit is due... David did a good job getting the bird into the hot oil.  No splashes... no spills... no boil overs... no catching the garage on fire.  Actually, it was pretty unexciting all in all.

 

Well, the bird was fantastic.  That's the only word to describe it.  Moist, delicious, and flavorful with absolutely NO flavoring injected or anything like that at all.  No kidding.  I have not had so much fun picking at a turkey, and a turkey carcass, for many, many years.  I give David all the credit he figured he was going to earn... he did.  Normally the only thing I like on a turkey is the skin.  Without a doubt, the meat was as good as the skin this time :)

I forget if this was before or after we ate but it doesn't really matter.  David had started a beautiful, roaring fire... NOT... and it was time to just kick back and relax a bit.  That's Michelle standing behind David.  Michelle had brought a considerable amount of food that she had cooked up as well. 

Friday was a sleep-in morning somewhat for all but David who was out at 6 AM to go to work.  More on that to follow.  Samantha and I chatted while Hannah pulled out the Play-Do and played at the table like an angel.  Somewhere along the line I grabbed some of it and rolled it out thinking I was making a snake.  No way, baby!  Hannah declared it to be a necklace that whe wanted to wear, so that's what it became.

All I did was roll out the necklace part.  Hannah made the flower to go on it.  It was quite wonderful watching her little creative self with absolutely no help or guidance from either myself or Samantha. 

And this may have been the best part of the session.  In all we probably made 3 or 4 necklaces.  Well, after wearing each for a short time, it was time to move on.  Hannah would carefully take it off being careful not to have it come apart and then she made something else... rice :)  I know that all little children are creative and wonderful and all that, but come on... have you ever seen a little child purposely make Play-Do rice?  I didn't think so!

Somewhere close to noon I drove downtown to meet up with David and ride along with him for the rest of his shift that ended at 3 PM.  We stopped for lunch and kept Fayetteville safe.  It gave us time to talk a bit about this and that and gave David a chance to become very proficient with the radar setup in the cruiser.  It was kind of neat setting up on a highway and then nailing a couple of folks :)  After the shift we made our way back to the house where we talked, played games, had some Barbeque, watched a few episodes of Frazier and called it a night.  I said my good-byes to David because I wouldn't see him in the morning and we all called it a day.  Today, Saturday, was a day of good-byes and I really don't like them.  All in all, as said at first, it was a wonderful, wonderful holiday weekend and I hope it was just as wonderful for all.









Lost and Found

Oh my goodness... what a wonderful day in Georgia this was!  Temperature around 68... mix of sun and clouds... no wind to speak of... one perfect day to be out and about on a motorcycle.  I've been somewhat challenged down here to find my way around this state without getting so lost I'd never be found.  Unlike Illinois which I knew pretty well, and Connecticut which was just so small you couldn't get lost because you'd soon hit a border or the ocean, Georgia is big.  For the geographically challenged, such as myself, it might come as a suprise to know that Georgia is the biggest state east of the Mississippi.  Similar to Connecticut is the fact that the roads twist pretty good here and nothing really runs parallel, or perpendicular, to anything else.  So... I went ahead and got myself a GPS for the bikes and today was my first day going out with it mounted.  I'd call it a rather large succes because I turned onto roads without concern about having to find out where I was just to figure a way to get home.  I had to make some adjustments, like wearing my glasses just so I could see/read the thing... contacts in order?  I've also got to work on raising it up a bit higher so I'm not looking down.  Forget hearing it... ain't gonna happen.  But, I'm rather happy about it.  I roamed all around feeling good and that was the objective.  I will continue to create and use my little route cards that I've been using all along, but with the GPS unit, I don't have to look for road signs quite so much because I can see them coming up.

Because of this roaming around and such I found myself having a pretty good time.  I got up into the mountains that are actually south of me and of pretty good size.  None of the roads that I've been riding on have much traffic but the back roads I was on today had none... as in none.  All in all, a wonderful day.

The VTX all alone on the side of the road.  Why no one else was up here enjoying this view was beyond me but that's the way it was.

As you know, pictures just don't do 'big' camera shots justice and this is no exception.  This was a tremendous panorama looking down over some clearings, a lake or two, and just miles and miles of land.

I love this shot and it's the best I can do to let you see what I was looking at... the horizon, uninterrupted!  Click on it to make it bigger... go on... you'll love it.

Happy fellow :)  Note the mesh jacket on Novermber 21st !!

Found It

I've been looking for the fall colors on my sojourns around Georgia and haven't really come across anything that was that exciting.  Now, I've found it... in my own yard :)  I walked out on the deck this afternoon and saw the most beautiful red tree, right there at the back of the yard.  I have no idea how to tell one tree from the other although I'm pretty sure about recognizing Pines and now Magnolias, the latter because the little thing sourrounded by the mulch loop is a magnolia tree.  So, I can't tell you, or myself, what kind of tree it is.  Anyway, these photos don't due the color justice but it is quite brilliant.  It appears that I have 3 of the things, whatever they are.  The one on the left seems to be a bit ahed of the ones on the right.  I'll keep looking as the days go on.

Looking for Color

Well, it was a beautiful, bright November 7th in GA albeit a bit on the cool side but that just set things up for my first cool weather ride in quite some time.  What with the interviewing for my new position late last year and then the move down here in late February I've not had any opportunity at all to ride in weather like I used to ride in back in Chicago.  It was about 43 degrees out when I left the house and I'm happy to say I remembered how to dress for the cold ride.  I took off heading north kind of meandering around to get up there with the purpose being to find some of the fall colors I keep hearing about in northern GA.  I looked and looked and while there were indeed some colors besides green, they really were kind of dull looking and nothing to get overly excited about.  I guess I was a bit spoiled living up in CT though where people come from everywhere just to get on a tour bus and look at the leaves.  Sheesh!  It didn't really matter because I had a wonderful day out and about, found some beautiful new roads, and enjoyed one in particular that I had been on before and very much enjoy riding.  I did remember my camera this time -- just for you, Jane -- and although, as said, the color isn't very rich, this is the GA foliage in November.  Check out that sky though!

This is just some abandoned property that caught my eye as I was on a bit of a side road.  Must have been pretty nice at one time with a cabin up there behind the tree on the left and some kind of a pavilion for outside activities.  Nice indeed.

That's it... about all the color that you're going to see in the mountains I was in today.  But look at that sky!!

One more chance to see the color.  If you click on the photo to make it bigger, and then squint just a bit, you can kind of make out some red in the trees in the foreground.  Might take a bit more than squinting :)