YCGL - Thursday, November 24, 2022 - Thanksgiving Day

Arthur, Steve and I

Hi All, 

It's been a while since I've gotten on last, I needed a break from traveling and wanted to stay home for a while.  I also had the normal catching up with mail and honey-do's needed to get done.  And basketball!  And volleyball!

Basketball season has started with both the men's and women's teams starting.  I still have the same seats for the men's games as we've had for the last eight or so years, since the Arena-Auditorium was remodeled.   They are about 25-30 feet above the court and right in line with the west side backboard, so I can watch if the shots from the sidelines are on target.  Always fun.  The seat for the women's games is three rows behind the women's bench and right behind Joe and Mary's seats.  So I get to clap and shout encouragement for the girls.  This seat is also in line with the east backboard so I can see the shots almost from the players' perspective.  I think I've been to eight or nine games already.  Believe me, basketball is what you do during the winter in Laramie.  

Volleyball season had almost ended when Joe asked me to come.  He gets complimentary tickets from some friends of ours, so it's been free to attend those games.  I caught the last four.  In all the years of living in Laramie, those were the first four games that I've Ever attended.  It's a real shame, it is quite a sport, so fast I can barely keep up with it.  There are lots of subtleties that we didn't learn in fourth and fifth-grade PE.

I had originally planned to go out to Portland after going to Boston, but I got pretty travel-weary and wanted to stay home.  For which, I think, Liz was both disappointed and relieved that I didn't.  I really enjoyed being out there last year, especially with having Friday Thanksgiving with Nick's Family.  But Liz has had so much going on with her house on the coast, getting it ready to become an AirBnB.  And both she and Nick developed SRV (the respiratory virus) since then and I think my not coming made it easier for her. 

Soooo,  last Thursday, the 17th, Liz called and during the conversation ask if I had any plans for Thanksgiving.  Joe and Mary were both going to be out of town and I really hadn't thought of anything.  I was thinking I would smoke a turkey, or maybe go up into the mountains and eat at the Albany Lodge, or at the Senior Center.  Anything was fine, I'd decide later.

The next day, I got a text from Jere's son Arthur inviting me to come down to Denver and have Thanksgiving with him and his dad Steve.  Which sounded great!  And then, a while later, I got a call from Juhl saying that he and Lisa had plans for TDay, but they wanted to come up on Friday and we could go out to eat, which also sounded good....And a little suspicious.  

I texted Liz:

So, bottom line, I ended up coming down to Steve's house and it only ended up being Steve, Arthur and me.  I smoked a 14-pound turkey and brought half of it down, and Steve had about a 20-pounder, so there was enough turkey for all of us turkeys, and three pies.  

Yes, that's one of Steve's famous Apple pies on my fork.

Pretend you don't see the pecan pie in front of it.

Everyone had to do their part in working the pies.

Characteristic Arthur pose.  

Later tonight, I drove into downtown Denver and am staying at a hotel about three blocks away from the Denver Art Museum.  I'll go to a couple of special exhibits there, have lunch and maybe do a little shopping on the way back to Fort Collins and Juhl and Lisa's house.  

And there is a little more news coming up, but I'll save that for later.  :)  (You got to keep them curious so they'll come back....)   

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and could be with family and friends which is what Thanksgiving is all about.  Love to you all!