somber thoughts

the commercial strains of black friday sound hauntingly familiar. foreclosures continue telescoping into general bad debt. favored politicians are losing their shine. there's a rash of accidental deaths and military deaths. healthcare is waiting to pull us into a new morass.

is it december already?

adult concerns

HOM wants to go away. privacy, he murmurs. just the two of us.
nothing a good lock wouldn't fix, i say.

living water

jeremiah 2 is the song of a love gone awry, of a covenant reneged. but the sobering lesson is not of losing or keeping one's first love, or even of holding to a pledge, but this:

that we need to believe He is the spring of living water, because the natural thing to do is to dig our own cisterns that do not hold water. it is in seeking our own help that the heart grows less attached; thus are modern idols invited in.

the modern haberdasher's

needles buttons and thread are so old world.

the aftermath

of our encounter with belinda is that we have had turkey with pasta and turkey curry and will perforce have turkey porridge turkey chilli turkey soup turkey noodles and various other turkey incarnations in the foreseeable future. having guests at the table is clearly going to be an act of self-preservation.

mortality

this is our last thanksgiving like this, with a full family in the sweetness of innocence. when thanksgiving comes again, J1 will be in military service and we may not be in this country.

it's a pity that it takes a conscious limit  to add an edge to our experiences that would be dulled by easy unthinking availability.

black friday

the four of us stumble to the mall before the crack of dawn. there is a sea of cars in the parking lot. reality nudges her way in past the morning specials as we realize that:

1. adrenaline runs out after the first five minutes.

2. the 20% off coupon that we have has expired.

3. the line at starbucks is longer than the line at macy's cashier's.

because of the above, there is unexpectedly limited financial fall-out attached to this family outing.

the bird 2

belinda reloaded.

with thanks to turkey tutorials from the food network.

the bird

meet belinda.

my thanksgiving lesson

is this:

if you defrost a turkey without precautions, you are liable to flood your refrigerator with serosanguinous brine.