Those of you who have followed me for a while know that this isn't unusual for me since my grandfather passed away and we moved to Fernley, but Lisa and I having a quiet Thanksgiving at home has more significance this year than usual.

( Stay Home, Stay Safe, Get Stuffed )

As I mentioned, yesterday would have been my grandparents' wedding anniversary. They raised me from the age of five after my parents divorced, and with exception of a four-year period when I lived with my father in Milford, Challenge, and Bishop, California (the US Forest Service kept us on the move), they raised me from my formative years through my third year of college. They went through the Great Depression, when my grandfather's parents loaded the family (and it was a big one) into a Model T and fled unemployment and potential starvation in northern Arkansas to head to California to find work in the fields. (Forget reading The Grapes of Wrath — my grandparents and their siblings lived it.) Lisa reminded me yesterday that they would have been proud of me, and that I should be thankful for that. We have never gone hungry, nor are we in any danger of doing so. We have a comfortable home that is more than just a roof over our heads. We have enough reserves so that even if things go bad with my job, we won't lose our home and we'll probably do okay.

Lisa is right. We have a lot to be thankful for. Life is not perfect, but we're a lot better off than many people. I am no paragon of virtue, but in general I tried to do all of the right things. While I have had the advantage of the structural privilege that John Scalzi so aptly characterized as "Playing the Game on the Lowest Difficulty Setting," I still had to play the game and do the best that I could. And I don't make the mistake that many in my position have made of pretending that I'm a Self-Made Independent Strong Man who didn't need any government. My grandfather's living as a construction worker included working on a whole lot of public works projects like building dams and roads. My grandmother was the clerk in a two-person post office in Challenge; the postmaster there sold my grandparents the home in which they lived and which I recently was able to sell; I considered it my childhood home. My father was a career civil servant, albeit that people don't often think of forest rangers that way. I had a public education and was able to go to college first at a local community college and then at California State University, Chico. I had some scholarships, and I did work through college, but I also had public-funded student aid and government-guaranteed loans. I have the benefits of living in a civilized country (I hope more so than it has been these past four years) where my taxes help benefit everyone, not just me personally. There is no way I could possibly have been as successful as I have been without government programs that all too many people call now or have at some time called "socialism."

So color me grateful at my personal success and safety, but also grateful that I do live in a country that manages to have some of the blessings of democratic socialism, even if half of its population claims to reject such things. And I'm also grateful that an absolute majority of the voters of this country rejected the further expansion of a would-be populist white-supremacist dictatorship. I only hope that we'll be thankful in years to come that we managed to back away from the precipice in time.

Lisa has been up mostly at night, which makes a lot of sense considering how hot it is during the day. This morning when I got up to start my work day just before dawn, I saw that Lisa had left me something.

( Just a Sample )

The sample was quite good, and I have to agree with Lisa's decision to keep most of it away from me for my own safety.

When we were at Raley's in south Reno last week, Lisa spotted that they have duck, which you can't get in Fernley anymore, and she had us get one. Yesterday, she prepared a duck dinner. Her experience with doing these dinners shows, as she'd getting better with it.

( Chow Down With the Bear )

Rather than try to make duck soup by simmering the carcass for a few days over the stove, we just picked off such meat off the bones as we could after we finished dinner. (There wasn't much left; a duck is just about right for the two of us.) I had the leftovers for lunch today. Delicious!

We had intended on going into Reno straight after work to do grocery shopping; unfortunately, Day Jobbe made urgent calls on my time this afternoon, so by the time I got free, it was too late in the day. Ideally, we want to go in the early afternoon, as it appears to be less busy then, and we definitely don't want crowds. Even with face masks, it's difficult to do social distancing when the stores are busy.

After we finished up with the brush burning yesterday and put away all of the tools, Lisa nicely cooked up brunch.

( I Have No Complaints )

This morning we did a local grocery run. Sunday morning isn't that busy, which helps, but it's worrisome to watch so many people, including store employees, who don't know how to wear a face mask. It has to cover both your nose and mouth, people, and you have to not play with it unless you're also immediately washing or disinfecting your hands.

Speaking of hand washing, I'm sure glad that, just before the virus hit, I'd bought several large pump bottles of moisturizer. With so much heavy hand washing, my hands get all lizard-skin. It would be worse if I wasn't just a home-worker with a computer-related desk job. Any opportunity I have, I apply some moisturizer to try and fend off the dry and scratchy skin.

I've been surprisingly fatigued lately. A bit after Noon today, I went and took a three hour nap. It seems to help a little. Part of me says I should get dressed and go for walks. The rest says that my body is telling me that I need more rest. Maybe I'll just sit here and watch the birds coming to our feeder instead.

Lisa's sleep schedule at the moment is such that I don't see a lot of her. But I'm working during the day and if that's when she's sleeping, that's not a problem. This morning, she left me something for breakfast.

( Not My Usual )

These are good. I just have to be careful about not eating them too fast.

Tonight's dinner, eaten while watching an episode of Time Team on YouTube, was pork in tomato sauce over Barilla whole grain rotini pasta. Lisa used half a package of ground pork, browned in olive oil and Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce, with a can of Giorgio mushroom pieces and stems. The base sauce is Di Napoli Classico Tomato & Basil no sugar added. Lisa also added a small can of tomato paste and added additional basil and oregano. There was enough for our dinner tonight and my lunch tomorrow (and maybe another thereafter).

After dinner we went out for a walk, which I really need to take after eating that pasta. The walk was delayed a bit by a phone call from my father. I don't talk to Dad very often, but we spent half an hour or so talking about how we're all getting along. The isolation isn't bothering him as he's got ten acres of land on which he lives near Lake Oroville, the maintaining of which is a full time job (he's a retired forest ranger).