Thanksgiving 05

Second year in a row we drove up in a snowstorm. Last year, we left late and got snowed off in Angola or wherever that was; this year I took a half day off and we left by 2:00. The snow was kind of bad, sometimes getting us down to 40 mph, but in other places there was just wet pavement where they salt trucks had dropped their loads. Saw several cars off the road.

The worst factor was that Birk has entered the age where he hates being in the car seat for that long. We stopped probably four times all told, and at the end of the day it was an 8 hour trip. My ass was killing me by the end.

At one stop, I carried Birk into the play place at a BK and this one father almost immediately starts talking to me about . . I forget what, but he was just incredibly friendly and I almost immediately deduced that he was at least from the UP and maybe from Canada. UP was right. We chatted for a little but C talked to him even more b/c I was out buying food and stuff. As they leave, the guy turns to me and says "hey, if you're ever in Grand Maris, look us up. We could go fishing.” Later, C fills me in that he is one of the only commercial fisherman in the UP and has a fishing boat there in GM. What a life that must be. His three kids (“Jenna Ray” was one daughter whose name he kept calling over and over) and he and his wife certainly seemed like happy folk. I wonder if we seem happy to other people in fast food places. I wonder if I care.

All night long the wind blew hard against the side of the lake house. C and I are on my folks’ side and it’s pretty with huge waves pushing up against the shore. It was windy most of the day today, in fact. It seems like the winter thinks of a different way to make the lake freeze over every year. This year, there are a lot of ice-globe like things floating in the water where the waves are pushing them into a slushy shore. Maybe they’re solid ice, I can’t tell, but they’re round as can be. You want to go collect them.

A pair of loons fished the shore right outside our house for most of the day, too. Most of the time they were no more than 5-10 feet from our shoreline, in fact. Beautiful to see. I want to pet them.

June is so into Papaw that it gets annoying at times. I can’t blame Dad, of course. June gets so into him, though, that she gets rude to Birk and won’t let anyone else around them. It must get tiring for Dad, too. It’s extremely cute to see them play together, though. I should just be happy she loves him so much. I got her to play with me for a little while today so that Dad could nap some. I lucked out and got her to play a game of “snuggle tent” in which we hid under the covers on her bed and couldn’t leave because a bear would get us. She would look out of the covers and say “there’s no bear” and I would have to say urgently “here he comes!” and she’d get back under. Eventually, she went downstairs to see mommy and stayed there in her bed to nap for over two hours, according to C. It felt like about that long, so I believe her.

Dinner was great and traditional. Mom had a new interesting gravy that had some zing. I had a glass or two of a $4.99 piesporter. It wasn’t that bad, I don’t think. I helped clean up, even. We talked about . . . I can’t remember what we talked about, to be honest. We’ve all just kind of been in the moment up here.