Thanksgiving

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

I used to be indifferent about the ‘thankful’ part of Thanksgiving. I figured that if I was not homeless, had food, and wasn’t looking down the barrel of an eviction it was all my own doing rather than happenstance, fate or the whim of some invisible man who lives in the sky. As a result, Thanksgiving was, at its core, about eating lotsa food and having a day off. And theres nothing wrong with that.

Fast forward a few years. Preparedness has gone from being theory to practice as the economy goes south, people lose jobs, prices go up, etc, etc. I dont actually feel thankful on Thanksgiving any more than I do the rest of the year. I often stop and muse to myself that “we have it pretty good”, despite the things going on right now. I am mostly thankful that the missus and I are able to live safe, warm, comfortably, well-fed and secure.

Some small segment views Thanksgiving as a day to blather on about how its just a holiday perpetuating the celebration of genocide over Indians Native Americans. QQ some moar. Every civilization is built on the bones of someone else. Technologically advanced Europeans curb-stomped Bronze Age natives. And, prior to that, those same ‘natives’ eradicated who ever was here before them and set up shop. Thats how it works in this universe. Its too bad it happened, it happened a long time ago, move on and thanks for Manhattan.

Our Thanksgiving was spent at the house of the parents of some friends of ours. Every year they put on a small but highly delicious spread. I’m pretty pedestrian in my tastes. I just want turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, apple pie and ice cream. They were very accommodating about that and I ate a couple plates worth of food.

No after-TDay big turkey sale to take advantage of but I did find a good deal on some other groceries, but thats a later post. Hunting season ended Sunday and I only got out a few times so no deer for me this year. Im cool with that, I had a great time nonetheless. As I was standing around in the snow I came to appreciate the glory that is military bunny boots. A post on that later, also.

Next major holiday approaching: Christmas. Since even I cant keep track of the goodies I want, I’ve redone my Amazon wish list so the family and friends can avoid that awkward moment of not knowing whether I want the compact or the fullsize.