On-the-other-hand, on the televised news there were several news stories of customers rampaging through unlocked doors and fights over merchandise -- none of which is appealing. So of the two shopping modes -- we mostly pick online these days:
I almost feel guilty if I ignore an email from one of the many merchants that I have ever purchased from informing me that I have only x many days or hours to take advantage of the best deal of the year. And for that reason, I shop, reluctantly, but I shop and little-by-little I pick up momentum, as there are only 27 shopping days left until Christmas.
I try to intermingle family search work in between visits to shopping websites so as to not totally neglect my genealogical missions.
One of the issues with shopping online is to keep track of when shipments are supposed to arrive and the items that should be in the shipment.
One advantage of Amazon is that they project shipping times and dates and usually provide a tracking number. I knew the other night that they had used USPS for delivery and the package was due and expected on Friday night. However, our crack USPS person did not leave a package on that delivery -- probably because it was so late that they did not want to walk up to the door with it.
So Amazon re projected the delivery date to Saturday. I was able to meet the USPS as they drove up to the mailbox to ask about the package when they volunteered that I had two packages . . . it is a tough job . . . but someone gets to do it.
There is nothing like the aroma of a roasting turkey throughout the house on the big day. And we had that. We usually only roast a turkey on Thanksgiving so that distinct aroma was therapeutic for us. Actually it is almost a let down to actually sit down and eat -- the preparation takes so much more time and to me is very satisfying.
We seem to finish eating in relatively a short time . . .
But this year we had that aroma a second time as I cooked the carcass in a pot of broth to ultimately make a pot of soup. And I did and which we ate last night for dinner. The soup consisted of turkey meat that probably in a lot of homes gets thrown out -- but not in ours.
There were an assortment of vegetables along with my favorite soup ingredient -- barley, pearl barley.
That makes for some really good eating and we both enjoyed a large bowl along with a couple of biscuits -- I wish that we had some of the rolls that my paternal grandmother was famous for . . . but we enjoyed what we had.
He was the first real living tyrant that I was aware of growing up.
Two years ago, in a post written December 20, 2014, I wrote a bit about my awareness of Castro. (You can do a search at the top of this post)
But it happened that I lived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1959 -- the same year that Castro took over in Cuba some 90 miles off the coast of Florida.
I actually remember more about the songs of 1959 than of the life and times of Fidel Castro. I still remember being on the beach in Lauderdale hearing Bobby Darin blast out the ballad of "Mack the Knife" and hearing the other songs listed above. I remember the kids I was with at that time and often wonder how their lives have been over the years.
One of my favorite songs from 1959 is "Petite Fleur" and I still enjoy listening to that today by a variety of artists.
And not to digress too much . . . we have not enjoyed a single game by our local NFL team, the SF Forty-Niners this year. Not even thinking of the 9 straight losses, it's the actions of the current quarterback that has caused us to not watch the games.
They won their first game and then lost the next nine in a row. I can only imagine -- given the news I just mentioned about Castro -- what kind of reception that the quarterback will receive when he appears in the Miami stadium today after he wore a t-shirt this week praising Castro (this before Castro died). Cubans in Miami are not friends to Castro and left their country because of Castro.
When the Niners decide to stop allowing political ideas into the game arena, we may think about watching again . . .
And lastly,
Actually our dog Dino does have a family tree and it goes back several generations. He probably is one of a minority of dogs that the owners have a family history about. Many owners are not even sure of their pet's breeding or lack thereof . . . and it doesn't even matter.
Enjoy the rest of the holiday week and prepare for the next. See you all "in a few"!
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