Ah,  Thanksgiving, the official beginning of the Holiday season will be here in a flash.  A lot of families have holiday traditions they hold close to their hearts. One holiday tradition is what we will be looking at, after a detour of sorts.

 Here, at the McVeigh residence Thanksgiving is more of a “I wonder what in the world is going to happen this year?”  A quick review will sum it up. 

There was the Thanksgiving a ways back when I was working at the Carefree Inn and nearly forgot to cook the pumpkin pies for the Grand Holiday Buffett.  Fortunately for my career and about 600 guests I did remember about them on the way home. Dutifully I returned to the hotel and completed my task, as the morning crew was walking in. 

Another year, my wife and I spent our first Thanksgiving at home. That was the year of my father getting sick, driving Mom and Dad back out to Sun City West. To make the day more joyful the septic system backed up into the house. Then the septic pumping truck broke down and had to get towed out of the yard, while waiting for another truck to come out. However, we did enjoy our Thanksgiving dinner with the young man who was sent out to help. It was his first Thanksgiving in Arizona.

A couple of years ago, my wife and I returned home from working the day after Thanksgiving and noticed a couple of our oven mitts and a kitchen towel quite singed and draped over a lounge chair. Thankfully they were caught in time by our guests and rushed outside. Spontaneous combustion?  I don’t know….

Tuesday morning was spent tooling about picking up last minute supplies for Turkey day. After a fast-paced morning of running around I decided to treat myself to a burger. About halfway through I felt something odd in my mouth. After a close inspection, I was able to feel that my bridge was a little loose, just what I needed before a holiday weekend. A few more bites and the something odd feeling in my mouth suddenly felt way past odd.  Another close inspection showed that my loose bridge was now my missing bridge. And, there was only one place it could be at this point in time. Yep, I swallowed it. Right now you’re probably saying the same thing my dentist did when I called. Having the greatest dentist in the world (Dr. Alan Katz, Scottsdale, if you need one), they got me in and set me up with a temporary bridge.

Which brings me to Thanksgiving traditions. This year, when the meal is finished, I am going to retreat to my office for approximately 20 minutes. There, I will uphold an age-old Holiday Tradition. I will put “Alice’s Restaurant” on, the way it is supposed to be. On vinyl, on a turntable, on Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Back.  It’s that simple. No explanations and no apologies, just some encouragement from friends.

I jumped in the pool last week, which is quite unusual considering it was the last week of October, not usually swimming weather. To be honest I didn’t swim, I jumped in, said “there, I did it” and got back out. This bookends nicely with the last blog on snowshoeing.  Cold, and cold, with a typical hot Arizona summer in between. 

 Quite a bit did go on between those dates.  Glen Frey and David Bowie both died, The Olympics went on as scheduled in spite of all the dire warnings, Queen Elizabeth turned 90 , Groundhog Day (always one of my favorites), there was a big concert in the desert with great old bands playing at it (One of my favorite T-Shirts, I may be old but I got to see all the cool bands), the Cubs WON  the World Series, and, this is not Sci-Fi, but either Donald Trump, or Hillary Clinton will become President of the United States, wonderful, the choice between either a megalomaniac or a pathological liar.

And you know what the big news is today?  People are “upset” about the Starbucks Green Holiday (they don’t have the cajones to call it a Christmas) Cup.  I’m serious, check out the news. This is what the American Public is upset about.  Not Obama Care which is proving to be more of a mess than anyone imagined, not the upcoming election, not immigration, the economy or the out of control Federal Government, but a f*#@*ng Starbucks Cup.

The good news is, Dutch Brothers is doing a gangbusters business in Arizona. Very good news.

Happy Election Day

Snow Fall

Arizona weather is quite a deal. I’m sure that this is one of the only places in the country that dedicates the first 10 minutes of it’s prime time news to video’s, interviews and stories about…rain.  I know it’s the desert, our annual rainfall is around 7 – 8 inches, you read right, inches. However, the breathless fascination of our local media on reporting the rain is possibly a little crazy. Shot’s of rain in the streetlights, shots of rain hitting the street, shots of the reporters with raincoats on, standing in the rain, reporting on the rain.

But I digress. Snow, now snow is a different matter. Snow in Phoenix is worth reporting. We don’t have any though. But, last weeks El Nino storms dumped a lot on northern Arizona, and there was snow reporting.

When the snow hits the focus is on Flagstaff, the Snow Bowl and Sunrise, our states ski areas. Luckily there is a part of the state that shall remain unnamed, where there is generally more snow than the aforementioned locations.

That’s where my wife and I were last week for a day of snowshoeing, a sport that we started in a couple of years ago. What I love about snowshoeing is, if you can walk, you can snowshoe!  A fairly light learning curve, but there is an unknown challenge associated with it.

We were stopped along an unmarked, unbroken trail for a moment. I’m not sure exactly what I did to facilitate this, but, I fell down, just like that. Falling down was no problem, what surprised me was getting up is a problem.

“I can’t get up” as my wife smiled at me laying in the snow. 

Have you ever seen “A Christmas Story” where Ralphie’s little brother Randy fell in the snow and couldn’t get up?  I have lived the experience.

Just like Randy I was rolling in the snow “I can’t get up!” as my wife continued to smile at me, sure that   I was re-enacting the role, we do love the movie.

“Really, I can’t get up and I’m getting cold,”  An Aha moment as she realized I couldn’t get up.

“Roll over on your side” as she gave me a shove in the snow.

“I can’ roll over” my snowshoes are about 4 feet long and trying to move in them is like trying to move in mud.

Finally she got me on my side, braced my poles on each side and I was upright again.

Brushing the snow off me we continued on our trek.

I love simple sports with no learning curves.

What have we been missing....?

My wife, dog and I just returned from a relaxing, 3 day trip where we were fortunate enough to stay at the “Hidden Rest Cabins,” Pinetop, Arizona. We were looking for a break from everything, work, the summer heat in the desert (still in the high 90’s), and just a break from the routine. 

We had also been out of the house about a month ago for a couple of nights, staying at a local place, The Smoke Tree Resort, just down the road from our house. Now we’re not jet setting or spending a fortune on travel. What’s unique and great about these places is that both of them are family owned and maintained, neither one is a huge property, and both have been in existence since the 1950”s. Here’s the kicker, neither one of them was over $80 s night!

But that isn’t today’s story, (but will be later ones).  A couple of years ago we, like many others, realized that we were paying a crazy amount of money to Cable TV, for shows we had no interest in watching, as a matter of fact in spite of the number of channels available, we were having trouble finding anything to watch, so we cut the cable cord and went with Netflix. Now we watch what we want, when we want, with the surprise benefit of being able to watch a 60 minute show in 42 minutes…can’t beat it.

What I didn’t realize we were missing, till we stayed in a couple of places with cable, was, Infomercials! Holy Cow!  I had no idea what we have been missing!  I had no idea that life could be so easy. We can be thinner, stronger, more stylish, cook with three types of ovens, make crazy shakes, vacuum the rug right off the floor, dress stylishly, have the latest computer, get a knife set that will replace everything including my axe, light the exterior of the house with lasers and…well, I’m running our of breath.

Since most of these products come with a complete, money back guarantee and free return shipping, I think a realistic strategy is to order a different product one at a time, use it till just before the expiration period and then return it. Seems pretty sound to me, and I’ll be improving my life! And doing if for free!

It seems the hardest part of making a decision on what to buy is the timing, so many of the offers end AT THE END OF THE BROADCAST! 

We’re going to have to check into a hotel again soon, I feel the need for a Ninja Coffee Maker creeping up on me.