The Wind Has Spoken

Spring Lake Park was, as always, busy with people fishing, runners, walkers, strollers, dogs and kids this morning. But there was also the sound of chain saws as men labored to cut up and haul away the many fallen trees and branches, resulting from two nights of high winds. The range in age and gender of a group working to gather leaves, branches and brush from a popular trail led us to believe they were volunteers, as did the park ranger arriving with a big box filled with drinks and snacks to sustain the troops.

We are gathering supplies for the gathering of the clan on Thanksgiving. We borrowed a second table from friends, dug out the folding chairs from the garage, and assayed the supply of cutlery, crockery and glassware. The menu is planned, the cooking assignments have been made and clean sheets have been put on the guest bed. There is no point in vacuuming yet, but I cleared the spiders and their webs out of all the ceiling corners and got out the tablecloths and napkins.

OilMan has planned the preparation and serving of the feast with military precision and many lists. I don't think even he thinks that planning or even a list will be of much use when it comes to planning the activities--that's more like trying to herd cats and even he sees the futility in that. Besides, with four teenagers (2 boys, two girls) 5 and 7 year olds (one of each), wine tasters, beer tasters, how could we hope to find one group activity to please everyone?

Tomorrow I'll clean out the fridge to make space for the provisions which we will begin to gather on Monday. It's the one time a year when we can count on having the entire family together and I'm looking forward to doing it when we're not trying to unpack boxes and find places for everything as we did last year, five days after we moved.

There are piles of leaves nestled in all all the places that weren't swept clean by the wind. When we're sure the weather fronts and high pressure systems have sorted themselves out, we'll sweep up the piles and dust off the outdoor furniture.

Many thanks to all of you who sent hearts and stars and kind words for my 500th blip. Without you I never would have reached 500!