Autumn Daze

Hard to believe that Thanksgiving has passed, and yet this Gang of Ten is still wandering ‘through the neighborhood unmolested. From the original gaggle of juveniles which terrorized the neighbors’ lawns comes this meaner, leaner troop – an alert and pushy tom and his harem. The olives on the neighbors’ tree are now history, and in return the trees have been well fertilized for the next growing season…

Thanksgiving was fun for the reasons it usually is – food coma, unlimited family chitchat – plus a new reason – we didn’t have to go anywhere. The horde descended upon us, and there was the usual festival of experimental foods and fancy table-setting, with the first rose from the hacked back bushes making its delicate peach, pink, and yellow debut. We put in both leaves for the table, and borrowed extra chairs, and with putting the table kitty-cornered we juuuuuust fit everyone into the teensy dining room, even the Weans, who had their own folding table and plastic-ware and piano bench.

The around-the-table Thankfuls tradition netted a few surprises, mainly that an auntie whose beau we’ve never actually met is engaged, and that the niecelet has managed to gather all of her transcripts before the deadline – oh, happy day, indeed, since it means she can finish her grad school program on schedule. Much to be thankful for, as usual, but the best part of any family gathering – at least amongst our clan – is the games. We played our usual two-team Taboo and found that the Francis girls are uniformly bad at this game. REALLY bad. Laughably bad, to the tune of shouting out guesses for the opposing team, etc. We were unbelievably entertained, and plan to make sure they’re on the same team next time. :ahem:

The weather has been so mild thus far that the series of storms which shook, rattled, and rolled us came as a delightful little surprise. The brown-outs overnight led to some pretty crispy cold mornings with the heat only intermittently coming on at night, but it was the BOOM! explosion of the transformer Sunday evening, which apparently left neighborhoods in a five mile radius without power for over nine hours, which was truly problematic. After the big rain and wind, it was clear and verrrrrrry cold without heat for hours and no cloud-cover. T and D actually began reminiscing about life without a boiler – and not in a nice way. Fortunately, the property owner is converting the fireplace in the music room to gas, and soon we’ll have at least one heat source in case of emergency!

Last year at this time we were slogging to make it through the last several Christmas shows before bugging out to Iceland for a week. We think affectionately of all of our music teacher and Music Minister friends, who are beginning the holiday slog through myriad shows and performances – we think especially of Ms. D., who has eighty-eight little choristers below the age of five… oy. Thank you in advance for all of your hard work, guys! Your listening public really does appreciate it…