Mary is crying again.
What could possibly be causing the Mother of Man to cry?

A little thought will bring you to something that you can do to make the world better.

Every Thanksgiving, people rave about my mashed potatoes and “could you please make them again this year?”.

Well, I know my mashed potatoes are not THAT good.
It’s like there is a thing that mothers and wifes do so “the dad” can feel like
an important part of the dinner preparations.
The dad has a “special dish” that they are known for and all the ladies
support his fragile male ego my asking for the special preparation.
It could be BBQ’ing. It could be pecan pie. It could be mashed potatoes.
Should I be taken in my this ruse?

I’ve come to feel that it’s like believing in Santa Claus:
in your logical brain you know the truth, but
believing makes the world a better place.
So, I accept the accolades and mash the potatoes.
And my ego is better for it.

The evening before Thanksgiving dinner means peeling potatoes.
At least for me.
Somehow I am the “mashed potato expert” who has the job of bringing
pounds of mashed potatoes to the family gathering.

One of the potatoes in the 20 pound bag (how does a 20 pound bag
of potatoes cost less than a latte?) was wet.
I thought that was a bit odd since the bag has been sitting on a dry
porch.
Peeling the potato revealed that it had no center — just a home for
white grubs chewing away.

Needless to say, that potato did not make it into the mashed potatoes.

Last night we went to
Ice Cream Rennaissance up in Vancouver, Washington.
It’s not a chain, the owner is there to help you and it’s linked into the community with local artists on the wall and
local musicians playing in the background.
This is one of those small businesses that increasing rent drives out.

And the ice cream is wonderful. It’s not just that the ice cream is made there. The presentation is something
you won’t find anywhere else.
I had the “Dr. Chocolate” which was a scoop of milk chocolate ice cream and a scoop of dark chocolate ice
cream both rolled in cocoa and sitting in a perfect amount of fudge and chocolate chips.
Heaven for a chocolate lover and a proper mixture of flavors.
The other servings were also not just scoops if ice cream in a bowl.

I recommend the place whenever you’re in the area. They are open late nearly every evening, too.
We were there at 9pm on a Sunday evening.

Have you ever had an experience that makes you question reality?
You know… like those those science fiction stories where aliens are creating a world
just for one person.
Or maybe that you’re lying a tup somewhere with everything you see and feel
is a simulation al la The Matrix?
I remember seeing old Twilight Zone episodes where the central character looks out one window to see the sun and looks out the other to see a rainy day.

I had one of those today.
I was driving on the freeway where several ramps were come together.
I needed to merge right into fast, merging traffic so I was watching
the van in front of me merge right and watching in the passenger side mirror
a dirty, blue pickup coming up fast on the right.
I decided to let him zoom by and I’d merge in behind him.
I saw him in the mirror getting closer.
The van ahead of me had merged over and there was room for him
to go by.
So I looked to the right to see the pickup to find my place to merge
and he was gone!!!!
I mean totally missing.
In the 4 lanes of traffic around me, there was not a dirty, blue pickup
anywhere.
The only place I saw him was in my passenger side mirror but he
was not there in real life.

Do, Do, Do, Do. (Imagine the Twilight Zone theme).

Well, maybe there was a glitch in the reality simulation program.
I’m just not sure. We’ll see how the rest of the day goes.

Our cat Moon (really Moonlight, but that’s only for formal occasions) disappeared
a few days ago. All of our cats are indoor/outdoor cats but Moon is the only one who spends
most of her time outdoors. The other cats spend most of their time lounging around the
house like proper, spoiled cats.

But, like I said, Moon disappeared. Gone for three or four days. We called. We looked.
No Moon. A saddness began to grow in the house.

Then, yesterday, there was Moon sitting in the house. A little thinner and with a
large wound on her side.
We surmise is that she got wounded and she hid to get better.
All of our cats hide under a bed when they are sick or hurt.
The wound is bad enough that we’re glad she didn’t die under a bed somewhere.

She spent the night at the vet’s and we’re getting her back today.
I have no idea what wounded her (coyote, racoon, nail on a fence, …) but
the vet has it stitched up and drained and we’ll get our cat back today.

It was another year and another Halloween.
The
pictures
show that we again carved pumpkins, gave out candy and had a good time.
This year we had the family over (the kids and their families) to carve pumpkins
so everyone had a hand in creating the Halloween spirit.

This isn’t a dead blog. I’ve just been off doing other things.
But I have piles of pictures to get up and comments to make so this week I will be putting up a
new entry every day. Most of them will be from the past but it’s time to catch up.

Today I ran 15 miles to get ready for the
Disneyworld Marathon
that’s in early January.
I have a lot of training to do to get ready for that race.
But, you can see from the pictures that it was a beautiful fall day
here in the Willamette Valley. The rain even held off for the run.