But not as rough as putting up with family personalities. Yesterday we broke records for cold here in the Albany NY area. We had the lowest high temp on record for the date along with record low overnight temp as well. Add in some ass kicking winds and you got effin cold weather. Blew a breaker on one of the water trough heaters for the horses yesterday. It was working OT trying to keep the water liquid. They have a Black Beer thing happening near here today as well. I can't drink and drive so will not attend. My big shopping goal for today is getting some canned cat food on sale at Tractor Supply. Otherwise I will try my best not to spend any money on this day. We went to NYC and met my brother and his wife for dinner and a bluegrass show last week. We saw one of the last shows on the Hot Rize 40th anniversary tour. I loved the country set from Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers during the show. I got to get dressed and head outside to give the horses breakfast now. The Sun will be coming up soon. It's about 5 F out there. The wind has dropped off and it's going up into the upper 20's F today.

it is always pie for breakfast day for my husband! I rarely make pies because they do not last past the next day's breakfast, but today, hub will be eating pumpkin pie for breakfast and it is ALL his! Speaking of pumpkin, the dogs get a heaping tablespoon of pumpkin with their dry food. They love the stuff. I prefer apple myself, although our neighbor gave us a bourbon pecan pie the other day and it is delicious!

It is in the 20's here in western NC this am. I normally walk every morning regardless of the temperature and only bail during pouring down rain. But today is a day off.

I hope everyone survived their Thanksgiving dinners and relatives. Have a great day everyone and Tim, drink one of those dark ales for me. I can almost taste it.

I’m having pie for breakfast. I couldn’t finish my piece of pumpkin pie and was not about to waste the whipped cream, so, I’ll enjoy it with a cup of tea in a couple of hours.

An enjoyable day with friends, yesterday. My kids have used thanksgiving to punish me when they get mad at me so I spend it with friends and they can do as they please.

We’re all getting along these days, which is good, so I spend regular time with them as opposed to holiday time.

My son in Boston let me know about the temps there. Brrrrr! We’re in southern New Mexico and heading to a little border town to spend our Black Friday money enriching the Mexicans. We’ve done this every other year for about a decade, now. Much more fun than shopping in America!

We’ll be soaking in hot springs this evening on the way home. Beautiful day ahead!

Enjoy your day, Tim and raise a glass for me!

Have a beautiful day, everyone!

Wrestling a bit here with the question of what to do with miserable people.

My partner Kate found out that an acquaintance of hers hadn't gotten paid that week, and thus was going to have no Thanksgiving. She lives alone, so it basically would have been being alone and hungry on Thanksgiving. So of course, Kate invited her over for some food.

There's no question that that was the right thing to do, and I'd do it again.

But holy bejeezus.

Luckily, this person works nights, and therefore slept through our actual turkey and stuffing, so when she came over, we basically just made her a plate. My other partner went and watched Thanksgiving football--not, generally, a tradition of mine, though I have to admit one of the games yesterday was stellar. This is lucky because otherwise our Thanksgiving meal would probably have been spoiled.

Because this woman literally started telling us her life story, which is literally horrific. I mean, I've come through some shit, a lot of it when I was young enough that it's kind of atrocious I had to go through it, but this woman's life makes mine look like a cakewalk. And she sat there for more than an hour telling us all the terrible things that had ever happened to her, from the time she became pregnant with her first child which must have been at least thirty years ago, to 2015 when that child was murdered by her then-husband.

I would still invite her over for food and company on Thanksgiving. But for me it brings up the uncomfortable realization that I think I value my good mood over helping people like her, at least in general, during the non-Thanksgiving year. I'd make the same choice we did again if she were again alone and without food on Thanksgiving, but I have no impulse to try and make her life better, but only an impulse to seriously limit the time I spend with her. That amounts to letting the devil take the hindmost, or at least the unfortunate, but over my fifty years I've tried to help a lot of people, and it almost always goes badly, even when they're a lot more positive than this woman. I don't know if that's because our culture is really crap when it comes to giving and receiving help, or if it's an intrinsic problem of helping people.

It doesn't seem good to just withdraw and help less and less, but neither am I willing to let myself get dragged down while the other person's situation doesn't even improve--except in the sense that they now have somebody to commiserate with.

not-pie for breakfast. Sipping a cup of Peets' Major Dickason's blend as I type - great way to start the day. My e-mail contains maybe 30 Black Friday sales promo's. Sure will be glad to have it gone.

Just can't resist pointing out that most pumpkin pie isn't. Like most canned "Pumpkin" and "pumpkin pie filling" it is some squash that I don't recall that the industry and FDA agreed to call "pumpkin" because of issues with the real deal. Enjoy it anyway, even for breakfast.

Back in the day I put in some time on the docks. Nearby was Lena's, A vast percentage of S.F.'s longshore workers, scalers and shipfitters patronized it religiously for the local institution of Lena's sweet potato pie. A phenomenal gustatory treat. Thanks for calling back the memories, Tim.

Heh.

"We're going to push the Democrats to do it — there is absolutely, unequivocally no excuse for the Democrats not to support Medicare for All." @ninaturner is exactly right — we will win Medicare for All for the people.https://t.co/6McTFdmpA6

— Our Revolution (@OurRevolution) November 21, 2018

Hot, a la mode

Alas, I made a dairy-free gluten free pumpkin pie for my Sister that was so delicious even the people with no food allergies ate a piece. By the end of the evening there was only one piece left which I let my Sister keep.

I was also in charge of making my Mother's famous braised red cabbage this year to give my Sister a break in having to do all the cooking. Genius that my Mother was, her secret for achieving a perfect blend of sweet and sour is adding cranberry sauce to the mixture after it's been simmering for a couple of hours. Went perfectly with the potato dumplings!

But the star of the show was definitely the wine. A limited buy at Trader Joe's, this Cabernet Sauvignon sold for $14.99 but was upward of a $65 value. Bold and opulent, with a hint of berries, it finished so smooth it left a warm glow inside my entire being. I bought four bottles and brought two of them over to my Sisters house. At the end of the evening, after we had finished all the dishes, we sat down and killed the last bottle trading stories about work and life that had the both of us in tears of laughter.

Good times