The Day After

Man, I was one whupped puppy yesterday.  It's a good thing nothing was on the agenda but NASCAR.  Jimmy Johnson won his fifth straight championship.  So what else is new...ho hum.  Bessie Anne obviously felt the same way.  It spit rain and snow off and on all day...good to stay indoors, keep the fire going, the hummers fed, and doze now and then. 

The new camera has many, many options and the manual is only accessible through the computer.  I am big on reading manuals and learning how to work all the features of anything new.  The photos themselves are really, really clear, but there were a few more roadblocks in transferring to the computer, and again in transferring to the blog, so they came out rather blurry, I fear.  Out here in the back of beyond, I can only get dial-up and it took over half an hour to post each picture.  That's more than a little discouraging.  Maybe today will be better.

Or not.  Well, I guess twenty minutes is better than thirty.  That is MY pile of chips in the foreground, by the way!  The poker game is a kind of round robin, players changing dependent upon what's going on in the kitchen.  Some families watch football, some fight, some just come for the food.  My family plays poker!  As I look at this picture, Dave somehow makes me think of the guitar player with ZZ Top.  That white behind Dave was the ongoing mist, rain, hail, and snow that alternated all day. 

I must ask for indulgence when I boast about my Kids.  I'd brag about knowing these people if they were not my Kids.  Gatherings of the clan take on all the aspects of a well-choreographed dance.  Everyone takes part without direction.  The boys who arrived first brought more firewood up to the house while I finished milking.  They all know to stay out of my way while I'm cooking (my kitchen, my rules).  Craig took care of some incidental outdoor tasks during lulls in the storm, like putting wire over a ripped screen in the big hen house window.  Susan makes a killer salad, and this year she brought stuffed baked potatoes.  Deb is, as she has always been, my right hand in everything.  I feel sorry for anyone who hasn't got at least one daughter like mine.  The boys took on carving the turkey (my job ends when the bird comes out of the oven).  The table was set before I knew it, and the whole crew cleaned up after dinner, did dishes, and parcelled out leftovers while I put the kids to bed.  And then the cards and chips came out again!  Still pictures can't show the chatter and the constant laughter, the good-natured ribbing back and forth, but perhaps they do show the love.

Thanksgiving 2010.