back from the whirlwind tour

Okay, I swore I wasn’t going to get on here and immediately start complaining about my idiotic miserable worthless internet connection because even I’m getting sick of hearing about it, and it’s not like we can’t do something about it – I mean, we can get high speed here, for massive amounts of money  – but, hey, so much for that not complaining thing!  And you know, if I put a price on the time I spend waiting for pages to load, getting kicked off, waiting for the dialup to go through all its zzzzzZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ etc etc etc then having to wait for everything to load up AGAIN and then, TA DA!!! having it kick me right back off, I think I would discover that paying three times more for high speed would still be a savings in time spent sitting here staring at the computer and swearing and getting all irritable and cranky on a Saturday night when I should be relaxing and enjoying some time to myself.

I’d been trying to catch up with everyone, but since it’s kicking me off – and I am, for once, not exaggerating – every THREE MINUTES (yes, I’ve been timing it because what the hell else is there to do while I sit here waiting on it to reconnect??) – I’m just doing this offine. I’ll go back on long enough to post it, and maybe tomorrow I’ll go somewhere with wireless and catch up. And see pictures. And Noko’s squirrel, which I never could get beyond little top edge of the picture before it would kick me off and I’d have to start over. So now I don’t have to keep seeing the HAHAHAHA CONNECTION LOST, LOOOOOOSER!!!!! button pop up every three minutes.

Even Baker B is finally agreeing that we have got to get rid of dial up. He’s having problems with the desktop too, although for some reason the lap top is worse. Which is kind of odd because the desktop is about 23,000 years old in computer years, so you’d think it would be the one with the most severe issues. Who knows. Who CARES. This has to end!!!

Anyhow. That’s it. I’m done whining about it. Feel free to cheer.

Thanksgiving was fine, although I’m glad to be home. Which seems to be the way I feel about every Thanksgiving. We ate at my brother’s house, and the food was wonderful, which was kind of  funny because they just don’t cook at all ordinarily – they pretty much live on fast food – but when the SIL does cook, it’s delicious. And she did most of it, although her daughters brought a couple of dishes – one does incredibly good sweet potatoes – and of course I did the bread and the truffles. And the weird spicy cranberry sauce, which I have to say was REALLY good after it sat in the fridge overnight. I couldn’t believe how good it was – and it got rave reviews from the diners who like spicy things. So I was very pleased about that, and happy that I didn’t just throw it out after that first taste. 

We hung around talking to my brother and SIL and a couple of the kids for quite awhile. Complained about the parents (they went back to their house fairly soon after dinner, not being able to handle my nieces excessively noisy five year old)  which always makes us all feel better, at least.

I don’t know what it is about the holidays, but they just aren’t as much fun as they used to be. It seems like they are really more exhausting than anything else. My brother said they are seriously considering going to the beach for Thanksgiving next year. After being initially shocked, I don’t blame them at all. It’s SO much work for them, and then they turn around and do it again for Christmas – we go to Baker B’s mother’s house at Christmas, but the SIL does a meal and invites the parents then too, and I think maybe her parents. I told them we’d decided to go to Charleston at Christmas instead of to Baker B’s mother’s house, but then his niece told us she’s probably coming down with her adorable baby, so we can’t miss seeing them. But I understand the wanting to just get away instead. Which does sound incredibly selfish. And I can take Thanksgiving a lot better than Christmas, when we’re staying in an overcrowded house that’s freezing cold, with one useable shower, lots of boredom, a very uncomfortable bed, and way too much food. We may still just go drop in at Christmas and then go on to Charleston. It sure is tempting.

I think what I really miss is spending Thanksgiving with my cousins. Cousin E and her sisters lived in Richmond when we were kids, and our aunt and grandfather would drive up for Thanksgiving every year. Our aunt started taking me with her when I was really young – I’m thinking maybe 7 or 8. We’d leave after school on Wednesday and stay till Sunday, and it was SO much fun. It’s weird now that it seems like it was just me and Aunt Mabel sometimes – but I think my grandfather would stay in Richmond, maybe till Christmas?? I’m sure Cousin E remembers all this. We’d spend the night on the way up with my Winston-Salem aunt and uncle, and my very cool older cousin who had all sorts of hippy decor in her bedroom. We’d drive through Danville Virginia, and pass this huge dam, and my grandfather would always say, "Look at that damn thing!" Making my aunt gasp, "DADDY!!!!" fearing the corruption of my tender ears. I still think of Pop when I see a dam. A damn dam.

And in Richmond I got to play with my cousins and watch cartoons on Saturday morning (forbidden at my house thanks to the Weird Religion) and trek around in their woods and it was just great fun. So I guess I always compare all other Thanksgivings to those. Which went on until I was in high school, actually – I even drove myself up one year when I was in college, in my little green Volkswagen Beetle. All Thanksgivings since then have paled in comparison, I fear.

We didn’t even spend two nights in Asheville this year. We drove down to Morganton to Baker B’s mom’s last night so we could work at her house today. Poor Baker B took three loads of leaves to the dump and then rode the riding mower over rest of the leaves that had fallen in the yard since last Saturday. I helped his mom decorate her Christmas tree. Which took forever but was actually fun. I like decorating the tree – mostly because she’s got such bizarre ornaments and the whole time we’re decorating I can imagine all the great photos they are going to make.

And she got to see the kittens, who took the Whirlwind Tour with us. She really enjoyed them, and didn’t even mind having a litter box in the livingroom, to my astonishment. I’d planned to put them in a room upstairs so they wouldn’t tear the house apart, but she wanted them in the livingroom, litterbox and all. They are very entertaining. And were good little travelers, although I could tell they were as glad to get back home as we were.

Well, let’s see if I can get back on line and stay there long enough for this to post!