Happy Thanksgiving

Easier said than done, sometimes. So much loss in the last year: Kathy, George, Praxxus, Steve and I, probably some I'm forgetting and doubtless some whose losses I don't know about--it seems overwhelming. The first Thanksgiving without (father, mother, brother, partner), overweighted with grief and anxiety, a holiday with a hole in the middle.

That said, we did all right. Jody very sensibly suggested that a change of venue might be a good idea this year. Originally, the plan was for my dad and brother to take the train down from Sacramento; when it looked like my dad wasn't up for that, I volunteered to drive up and give them a ride. Which wound up being more difficult than I expected--when the hell did Wednesday-before-Thanksgiving traffic hell start bleeding over to Thanksgiving itself? seriously, I'm talking 50 minutes from Northgate to the I-80 merge in West Sacramento, maybe 5-7 miles--but we got here, the meal came together, we sat down to a pretty damn awesome spread (if I do say so myself) with some pretty damn awesome pies for dessert (if Jody does say so herself), and in the end we had fun. We talked and laughed and enjoyed each other's company, enjoyed being a family.

So there's that to be thankful for. Not a trivial thing.

I hope all of you had as good a day as we did--or at least as good a day as circumstances allow. Which is all any of us can hope for.