Operation Thanksgiving

It is a week of mixed feelings. I am looking forward to the four-day weekend. I am looking forward to getting up early on Friday and buying a bunch of stuff we don’t need. Although, I have my eye on the device that allows me to play my iPod in the car. If anyone has it as a doorbuster, it will be mine..oh yes, it will be mine (as Wayne of “Wayne’s World” says).

I hate Thanksgiving, as it was the day my father died 11 years ago. Also, I am allergic to turkey, eating it for the last time in 1976. Well, at least I don’t end the day sleepy from L-triptophan.

We are inspired to use this coming weekend as the time to begin our assault on our home. No, we’re not setting fire to it—quite the contrary. Last night, Roselyn O’Connell, my neighbor who ran for Congress, had my wife and I over her house, and we were taken with the simple elegance in which she and her husband George have decorated their house. We’d like to reciprocate, but people would think our house was ransacked. I could ramble on about our household management/decoration/upkeep issues, but they’re rather irrelevant in the big picture. We have a history of using Thanksgiving as the springboard for such activities; in 1990, on Turkey Day, we organized our former house in Phoenix and while it was never the palace at The Hermitage, we were not embarrassed to have company. My wife has “Operation Thanksgiving” all planned for this year.

The O’Connells are delightful, caring and thoughtful people. Roselyn would have made a great Representative, but my sense is she might not run again, which is sad. She is bright, articulate and a wonderful listener. I could see her absorbing and synthesizing every word discussed last night—a remarkable skill possessed by few people. We look forward to having them at our house after “the makeover.”