Wonderful Friends and Thanksgiving

Last Saturday afternoon, Dale and Stephen were kind enough to drive me into Boston for a reading to launch the anthology WHAT SAVES US:poems of empathy and outrage in the time of trump.  I read with Doug Anderson, Martin Espada, Danielle Legros George, Everett Hoagland, Richard Michelson, Robert Pinsky and Lauren Marie Schmidt. It as a very political reading by everyone and then came the question and answer period.  We each read two poems, only ones in the anthology I gave a couple little speeches during the Q and A session in my usual rabble-rousing way. I had a great time and babbled all the way back to Wellfleet– after taking Dale and Stephen to supper at Parkers restaurant in the OmniParker House where the reading was held. We had a big [they had to bring in more chairs] and enthusiastic audience. They bought 75 copies of the anthology!

We’ve harvested the last of our veggies from our gardens –the leeks over the weekend that turned into a Thursday vegetable and thenCelestine soup [basically it’s leek and potato soup plus celery and different herbs] for supper, lunch and lunch and lunch. One more supper for me when I ate alone. Then Tuesday we had the last Brussels sprouts.  We thought we’d get one last salad, but the remaining lettuce has toughened up in the cold. I dug the last radishes.

Last Saturday, I needed a ride because Woody had a big WOMR meeting where he handed off the presidency of the board.  WOMR has strict term limits. He was given an award for 'outrageous support' of the station.  He managed them into solvency and a capital drive to replace old falling apart equipment.  He will of course continue to do his weekly interview program and write short humorous essays for the Friday news.

He has been learning to use the equipment he bought recently so that he can be his own engineer.  Not everybody wants to drive to Provincetown to the studio for their interview and this way he can go to them; also it should give better sound quality when he does phone interviews. His latest was with psychiatrist/historian Robert Jay Lifton: Is Trumpism a Cult?

I am finished tweaking the novel.  Shortly afterward Dale discovered that two thirds of the way through, the pagination is way off as if there are missing pages, but there aren’t any.  I haven’t yet figured out how to fix it. I’d be able to do it on the MAC since I used them for well over ten years, but I don’t know yet how to fix it on my PC.

Everything was great this thanksgiving – the company, the turkey was perfect, the dressing, the stuffed pumpkin, the mushrooms Pierrot, the gravy and then both desserts the rum pumpkin pie and the maple Bavarian cream. The scalloped turnips Dale brought were delicious and so was Gigi’s salad.The first two football games had some excitement, especially when the Bills beat the Cowboys.  The third was way too lopsided to watch. Melenie helped me all day – she and Jay arrived the late afternoon on Wednesday and we all had pizza and the last salad from our garden.  Jay helped Woody outside in spite of the rain and the wind.  They put away all the lawn furniture and straightened the sheds. 

Friday we had great leftovers.  I enjoy Thanksgiving dinner more the 2nd day when I’m not entertaining a group and have not spent the day cooking with Melenie.  Tomorrow I’ll make turkey soup from the carcass and giblets and of course vegetables. Tonight pasta Bolognese– a pause with the turkey till tomorrow. Xena is sorry about that.  She has a passion for white meat turkey.

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