Friday, November 29, 2013

Thanksgiving and Friday

Thanksgiving dinner around here was in the form of the Old Country Buffet over at the Superstition Mall complex...  This is where the Fuddruckers hamburger place and the Jeep dealership are located...  Of course there are hundreds of businesses in this area and on the Mall grounds..

They had Steak, Ham, Turkey and Prime rib....  With all the trimmings...  They added dressing and cranberry sauce to the rest of the normal spread...   Pumpkin pie and apple pie were in abundant supply along with the ever present soft serve ice milk machine....

I was in line by 11:15, and had to wait for 30 minutes to get to the desk to purchase a table ticket...  It was about then that they announced that the restaurant was completely full... I and another gentleman teamed up to become a party of two, when a table for two was announced..  Most other groups were much larger, so we slipped in from behind passing about 30 folks all at once..

This fellow turned out to be a mine worker from one of the mines South and East of here..  He seemed to be very mechanical, and I wondered if he was a repair worker.. But he never did offer to much about his job, or why he was alone at the restaurant...  We got along just the same for the duration of our meal, mostly talking about the food and the other folks in the restaurant.

Later in the day, I was back out on the motorcycle on my favorite trip South of the city here...  It never becomes completely rural or desert, but rather an intersperse of all of the above...  I rode thru Queen Creek and then East to Ironwood Crossing...  Some of it at highway speeds, but mostly it is about 45 mph.  Traffic on Thanksgiving was medium to light..  But most of all it was 74 degrees and very pleasant....

The weather man on the 6 PM news reported that we had the warmest and nicest weather in all of the country...  And from the looks of the temperature map, that appeared to be correct...

On black Friday, I was waiting for the Hawkeye football game in the late morning...  I was surprised to find that the game was carried on ABC as a national game..  This increased the coverage of the team exponentially.  

I get so nervous watching these games, I had to continue on my project of writing thank you notes from the funeral.....  Letting the game run in the other room and only checking in on it now and then...  And before anyone wonders, I haven't been able to dig thru the funeral stuff and cards without having grief overwhelm me...

So ever so slowly, I have made a list of the folks that needed to be sent thank you notes...  But today is the first time that I could actually write them without a loss of composure...  I was kind of dual tasking listening to the game and addressing envelopes at the same time...

And while that was happening, my Hawkeyes overwhelmed the Nebraska Cornhuskers.... They stepped away from the start and never looked back.  That makes the team 8 and 4 for the year and should get them a good bowl bid...  Its fun when your school does well....

There was not a bit of black Friday shopping at this address...  I stayed home for the rest of the afternoon once the notes were posted late in the day...

Retired Rod

10 comments:

  1. It's good you shared a table for Thanksgiving dinner.

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  2. I remember helping my Dad with the cards after Mom died. It was hard but a year later he loved to go back and look at the cards and all the kind words that people had to say. It's okay to grieve and give yourself time. No shopping at this house either.

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  3. Nice that you were able to have a dinner companion

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  4. I can't even begin to imagine having to write thank-you cards for a funeral. That's a tough one for sure. Do what you can and hang in there.

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  5. Rod I am not sure but in Canada there is no need for Thank you cards after a death. Give yourself a break and there is no need to put yourself through that. We need to set up a lunch date. Give us a call. 520-464-7643

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    1. Brenda, how nice of you to post your phone number for lunch invitations. One question, do you take reservations??

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  6. You got thru Thanskgiving and that is what counts. Bit by bit you are developing a new routine. One day at a time.

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  7. As Brenda mentioned, here in the great white North I know we never sent out thank you notes after losing our parents and I don't recall ever receiving any either. That would be a very tough thing to do.

    It seems that with birthdays, Thanksgiving and Christmas on its way this is a very tough time of year. You are certainly in our thoughts and it's always good to hear what you are up to.

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    1. In Germany it is custom to thank the nearest and dearest with a personal letter.
      For the other one sets a general Thankyou ad in the newspaper.
      Example:
      "Allen, die sich in stiller Trauer mit uns verbunden fühlten und ihre liebevolle Anteilnahme auf so vielfältige Art zum Ausdruck brachten, danken wir von Herzen."
      Roughly translated...
      To all, who felt connected in silent grief with us and who expressed their loving sympathy in so many different, we thank you from the bottom of our heart.

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  8. I guess I just don't understand why thank you cards are sent after a funeral. I'm also from Canada and that's not something we do here.
    Perhaps someone can help you with that?
    Nice to see you had company for thanksgiving. :)

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