Abundance

The Day Before Thanksgiving

I love the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, almost as much as Thanksgiving Day. Today has been a bit different with worries ongoing about how Laura will get (safely) from Spokane to Seattle. She has a flight out this evening but the weather there is in the single digits and in the twenties here. Plus, it's the busiest day of the year for travelers taking to the skies as their choice for transportation. Laura forgot to put her suitcase in her car this morning when she left for work (at the airport) and now is depending on someone to bring her bag to her in time for the flight later today. I wonder how this is all going to work out. Denny says I spend way too much time worrying about stuff that doesn't "belong" to me. "But....but, but," I say.

Denny and I've been cooking up a storm today; getting many of the side dishes prepared for the feast tomorrow. About the only thing that is actually made on Thanksgiving Day is the turkey, stuffing, gravy, and mashed potatoes. Good thing we've got plenty of newly acquired oven space to heat up all the side dishes come tomorrow afternoon. The house is full of wonderful smells; onions, corn, cheese, sweet potato. Ahhh.

Our Thanksgiving has turned in to a tradition of blended family dishes (his and mine) over the years. This year with Heather's family joining us, we'll be introduced to a new dish, an old favorite in their family: yellow squash casserole. The line up looks something like this:

Turkey, old fashioned stuffing (no giblets), gravy and mashed potatoes
Holiday potatoes (made with cheese and hashbrowns); sinfully wonderful
Sweet potatoes
Squash casserole
Green bean casserole
Peas (plain and simple)
Old fashioned baked beans (Virginia's recipe)
Creamed corn casserole (made especially for my Dad; his favorite)
Turnip (may be rutabaga since they look very white and taste very mild)
Relishes
Rolls (irrelevant with all the above)

Our favorite Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, Mud House 2010 will bring out all the flavors. And then, the pies. Tina's bringing pumpkin and Denny made a pecan pie. Coffee anyone?

We are blessed to have this bounty to share with family tomorrow.  The table is set. We're ready.....

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Dad Takes Over for Mom with "Good Night, Darlin'"

He's so sweet.

"Is that you, Kitty-Kat?", he asks when I call him on the phone.

We chat about this or that. He reviews with me his list of ritual recitations and the Exxon stock quote. I often beat him out by reporting the close for the day which I've extracted from the internet. I ask if he's doing OK and he generally admits that yes, he is.

Today I apologized for not being able to get up to visit; the "bad weather, Dad", I say.

"I understand. I'm just worried about Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to coming to your house; the weather is so bad."

He really is excited about coming for dinner. It has been 4 years since he's been to our house for the big feast. Because we weren't  unable to get Mom up the 10 steps into our home after she broke her hip, we could never have them over for Thanksgiving Dinner or Christmas Dinner. This year, it's just Dad and the new deck in our backyard and the bank of Leyland cypress evergreens we planted two summers ago on the south side of the yard.  My but it's been a long time since he was in my home.

At the end of our conversation as we say our goodbyes, I say,  "I love you, Dad."

Then, he says what my Mom always said to me, "I love you too. Good Night, Darlin'"

Darlin'...she always called me Darlin'.

Wanna Drive on This?

Unfortunately, I will leave shortly to brave this insanity. Why? Because I'm supposed to interview a new candidate for our Nephrology section.

Update: Turns out, I was able to stay put. I've been spending my time getting ready for the big feast on Thursday; my favorite holiday of them all.

A Sheet of Ice and Blowing Snow

I never left the house yesterday owing to weather....actually I did but only to the local grocery store in the window of time when there were clear roadways. Despite my hibernation indoors with the comforts of electricity, water, and heat I got little rest for the worry about my two children, both braving the elements to get home from a day's work.

Chris had a nightmare commute; got on his bus in downtown Seattle before 4 PM, an earlier bus than usual to hopefully stay ahead of the rush. Not. He finally made it home at 12:40 AM; can you imagine 8 plus hours on a bus? No bathroom, literally stalled out on I-5 which was a parking lot, especially leaving the Seattle metro area. Seems every time we received a text from him he was still near Boeing Field, miles and miles and miles from home.At least he had his good buddy, Skiff, with him. I was curled up in bed, in and out of sleep, with an open ear for the text messages flowing in.

Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the state, Laura battled blizzard conditions in Spokane. The city is smaller and better prepared for assaults of cold, icy weather but still....she awoke to heavy snowfall yesterday morning with a commute to work, an admonishment to "not be late under any circumstances", and no decent clothing for this cold snap. She was planning on picking up her heavy winter jacket, gloves, and scarves when home for Thanksgiving. Awakened by a phone call yesterday morning at 6 AM, my dearest daughter described scraping her car of snow with a kitchen spatula (!) and traipsing through a ten minute walk from the parking lot to work with slippery conditions and no proper footwear. Sigh.

She made it home last evening and put my mind to rest for a brief time when her call came through near 7 PM. "I drove slow, Mom; really, really slow."  Good for you, I thought. As Dad once told me when I started to drive in snowy conditions, "You'll learn everything you need to know in 10 minutes because everything that can happen will likely happen...." Rather true. You learn quickly not to hit the brake and to drive S L O W in all that snow and ice.

I slept from near 1 AM last night until around 5:45 AM when Laura called to report that she'd made it (again) to work, through what Spokane is calling "blizzard conditions".  She said the wind was so loud it drowned out all other sounds. Blowing snow and slick roads. Poor visibility. She's dedicated to her job; not sure I'd be so determined to make it to work on time under these conditions.  Just heard from her again...."I'm selling lots of extra coverage today; no one wants to play around with this weather."  She's in the car rental business. I'm sure that folks don't want to worry about wrecks while driving their rental vehicle.

So, here I sit in my warm house. The sun is shining but it's bitter cold outside. We are so unprepared for this in the Northwest. The East coast folks are likely laughing....they've the snow plows,  sand trucks, de-icing fluid and salt that for some reason we in the NW can't seem to mobilize in a timely way. Sigh.

Who knows what will happen over the coming days?  Whatever it is will be interesting.

our backyard

Boo has the right idea on a winter-y day.

Ritual Recitations

Evey visit to Dad these past weeks includes what I now call (to myself) ritual recitations. He says to me, "I'm slipping" and by this he means his memory is getting fuzzy. Funny thing is, Dad's memory has ALWAYS been fuzzy when it came to the recall of names. If he didn't know someone's name he just kept quiet and later on made up a name. Truly.

He's on a jag now to remember and recite the names of his aunts and uncles, his father's brothers and sisters. A large family of eight he apparently, by his report, lies in bed at night pondering their names and consistently gets hung up on his Aunt Beryl. Who wouldn't? What a name.

We go over the list every visit: George, Otis, Lewell (his Dad), Marshie, Beryl, Bessie, Margaret, and Reba.

We also review the names of his pastor and a lovely lady from church who likes to sit with him when he attends church. Most of the time I have to give him the names after he struggles for their names.  Truly, none of this is new. Mom could tell us that if she were here. She was the one for names. Spot on.

This and That After a Week of Going Dark

A week plus and no blog posts. I feel a bit like these fallen leaves, ground down, having seen better days aloft on the branches of  gorgeous maple trees in Discovery Park. I'm just off call after 6 days of fairly non-stop action  as the covering  Nephrologist for the inpatient hospital service. I'm struck over and over just how challenging and complicated our patients are. Lesson 1: When the kidneys aren't working, ain't nothing working (well).

Monday morning and I'm OFF for two days. Praises be.

Outside my window snow falls, dropping light and delicate flakes, dusting the rooftops and roads. This must be some kind of record. In nearly 20 years in Seattle, I don't recall snow every coming before Thanksgiving. The roads will be slick and icy; that's the norm in this town whenever we get frozen precipitation. I love to see the snow....but hate to drive through the treachery. I've a dinner meeting downtown tonight and had promised Dad a visit today but, we'll see....

My children have both weathered the roads today.

My 6 AM call was from Laura who was due on the job at her new location (the Spokane airport) and reporting a harrowing drive on the freeway in snow and slippery conditions. "I thought I was gonna die, Mom."  No snow tires, dark and slick roads. Oy. On top of that, she's stationed outside today in a small (but heated) booth, monitoring the in and out of rental cars. "I had to scrape 6 cars this morning," she lamented. "My hands are freezing; I don't have gloves 'cause all my winter stuff is at home (Seattle)."  Oy. "At least my manager brought me a hot latte."  

Meanwhile, Chris was at the Gig Harbor bus stop waiting for his ride into town. Wonder how long his commute will be today; snow throws a huge monkey wrench (the only appropriate descriptive I know) into an already long ride for him. 

So, no rest for the weary. I'm up and at 'em, thinking of my kids and the snow, and my Dad who would love a visit from me today. What I'd like to do is curl up with my book and watch a log on the fire and sip some tea.

Till later....we'll see what the day brings.