Playing Catch-Up: Post-Thanksgiving Review

 

Once again, I'm playing catch-up. November was a busy month, and it had barely gotten started when I was hit with a cold/flu/bug/thing on the 8th that made everything even more challenging. I was pretty well under the weather for the first two weeks, and gradually have been feeling less like I was hit by a bus, but not quite 100% a full month later.  Who knew?  Certainly not part of my plan for the month, but I am so rarely ill that when I am, I hunker down, do what I need to do to get better, though sometimes these bugs take their own sweet time to leave your body and your life.

Happily, I'm nearly there, but Thanksgiving, which is one of my favorite holidays, was essentially a non-event for me. I knew early on that I would be declining any invitations to join others' celebrations.  I had ear-marked the time to catch up on as much sleep as I could, and I had already made my own preparations for a simple holiday meal that I fondly call "personal pan poultry" - aka Cornish game hen - and a bit of home-made traditional bread stuffing and Brussels sprouts.  

For those of you who live in the Northeast, and for anyone who was attuned to the news in the weeks prior to Thanksgiving, you'll know that Western New York was beyond slammed with a huge snowstorm in early November - not uncommon for that part of the state, but the volume - 8 feet and more! - was well beyond typical for the region in mid-autumn.  And it just wouldn't quit.  I spent a few years dealing with Western New York  (along with a good chunk of the rest of the state) in a previous professional life, so while I don't live there, I did feel the locals' pain. What a nightmare! 

Fortunately, my part of the state was relatively unscathed, but eastern New York had its share of early season snow on the day before Thanksgiving - about 8 inches by the time it was done on Thanksgiving morning. When I got home that Wednesday at about 4pm, I was well prepared to hole up indoors and not go out -- and I didn't venture out until the Saturday after the holiday.

So, in belated honor of Thanksgiving, I'm sharing the above vintage postcard that I purchased on eBay several weeks ago from a seller in Tennessee. It was a nice card, certainly, but there was something else about it that compelled me to spend a few dollars (very few, fortunately) to buy it.  It was inscribed on back in ink (clearly from a fountain pen) by "Addie" to her brother, "Fred" and - although neither stamped nor postmarked - it was addressed to a rural route located in Schaghticoke, New York. Huh? Where, you ask? Well, Schaghticoke (pronunced SKAT-ti-coke) is a small, rural town in eastern New York not far from the Vermont border (in Rensselaer County, actually) that I know quite well, and which isn't very far from where I live.  It seemed only appropriate to buy it for the few pennies being asked so I could bring it back home to upstate New York.

I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving and you're gearing up for the December holidays and festivities ahead.  I'll try to get back here to post before they've passed!