Folks,

This post was lost when SimHQ shut down for maintenance this afternoon.

Another cold night (30's F./ 1 C.±). Chilly mornings usually follow cold nights. That is so today. A brilliant sun beams down upon our little corner of the world. The high is expected to be around 55° F./ 12 C. Our sky is clear and, as usual, there is no snow on the grass or anywhere else within miles and miles of here AFAIK.

Dux:

So glad to have you drop by a bit more often. What a regular traveler you have become. I hope your brother is OK and all is well in the Peaks Dist. Do you miss the old digs much or are you still drunk with the sheer happiness of the new ones in Wales? Any luck convincing your brother to move to Wales?

I don't travel much these days. Mostly it is just up or down stairs. I used to travel quiet a bit. Sometimes, it was just for fun. On these special occasions, when I returned to hearth and home, it often slowly occurred to me that if I'd known what a great place home was, I'd have stayed there. Home to me was always where my wife was. She was always the warming heart of our home.

We can get so used to everyday things, even the best ones, so that we may tend to take them for granted..... until, for some reason, we find we dearly miss them. If for some reason we do not meet again before Thanksgiving Day, don't forget to eat your turkey.

Speaking of which. A friend somehow forgot his office gifted frozen turkey that had been hurriedly stashed in the trunk of his car on Christmas Eve. It was an unseasonably warm Christmas that year. So he instantly remembered that bird three days later when he got in that car..... did he ever.

You might remember that episode of the popular TV show "WKRP In Cincinnati" where station manager Carlson threw out free turkeys from a hovering helicopter to a large crowd gathered in a shopping center parking lot. It was a disaster. A desperately sorry Carlson's last line was something like, "As God is my witness, nobody told me turkeys can't fly".

No one ever tried that at any of our malls,or anything like it. However, several malls and strip centers did bring in Santa by helicopter. Right up until an unfortunately tall Santa somewhere in the US or Canada lost an arm waving to the crowd. No more helicopters were ever used to bring Santa by anyone in the industry after that real tragedy. I won't even elaborate on what happened when some thoughtless strip center idiots hired a skydiving Santa. The horror. You guessed it. They never could use that suit again.

Our family grew tired of turkey and trimmings every Thanksgiving and Christmas too. For the last decade of her life, my wife had an easier day, free from cooking on Thanksgiving Day. We and our extended family had a Pig Pickin' on that most festive American holiday. I could tell she appreciated that luxury. Something denied so many good cooks. Most of whom probably didn't mind that much being in the kitchen all day at all.