Life as a Spectator Sport

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Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving to all

I've got four loaves of bread and a pan of rolls in the oven, a batch of cornbread (for stuffing) ready to put in after them, cranberry relish prepared, rutabagas simmering on the stove, and salad ingredients ready to put together. I only have to mix up the pumpkin pie ingredients and make the crust, and it will all be done.

Shelley is on the opposite side of the country after pulling a load from North Carolina to Washington, and then picking up a load in Oregon to take to Florida, so heaven knows when she'll be home, but Nick will be coming over later today to share the meal with us.

It's hard to look at this great big guy and see the tiny baby he was just a few years ago. He's been living essentially on his own for the past six months since Shelley went back on the road, doing his own grocery shopping, getting himself to his college classes on time, and managing his mother's affairs in her absence. Not bad for being just barely eighteen. But I didn't want him to be alone on Thanksgiving. If Shelley had been home, they would have gone to Virginia Beach to spend the weekend with my son and his wife, but the lure of a huge bonus for taking on that cross-country load at the last minute was too much. Her boss called her in on Friday morning. "We have a load down in Greensboro that has to be in Washington by Monday," he said. "Can you do it? No one else wants to take it." That would be 2800 miles in three days, nearly a thousand miles a day. She did it, and then they sent her to Oregon to pick up a load for Florida. She figures the mileage alone will pay her bills for a month, not to mention the bonus she'll get for running over three thousand miles in a week. But it did screw up their Thanksgiving plans. So Nick will come over here instead, and Shelley will be eating turkey in a truck stop somewhere. Such is the life of the long distance trucker.

The black and tan short row hat is finished, except for seaming up the side, and I'm well into the cuff of a pair of fingerless gloves for another business associate. Pictures later, food now.
posted by Liz @ 10:34 AM     |


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