Thanksgiving Day really was wonderful. It was a bit cool, but it was sunny and bright. Edie and I started the day by getting ready and watching some of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade before we headed out to pick up my mom and dad. We had hours to spare before our 2:00 dinner reservation time, so we took a ride to the RI Veteran's Cemetery to visit Edie's mom's grave. We took a sort of winding route to get there, just to make it a more enjoyable, scenic ride.



The West Valley Inn

From there, we went to the West Valley Inn in West Warwick, RI, where we met up with a cousin of mine, her husband, his mother, and their two daughters, one came with her boyfriend. Another cousin of mine joined us a few minutes later. So, there were eleven of us there to enjoy the full family-style dinner that included chicken noodle soup, tossed green salad with Italian dressing, macaroni, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, bread, and more.



Me and my folks at dinner



Outdoor group photo (two people are missing)

After dinner and taking a few pictures outside of the restaurant, we all went to my cousin's house to relax, watch football, to chit-chat, and to have coffee and dessert. Another cousin and her husband joined us there, as did the boyfriend of my cousin's other daughter, so the number of people had swelled to fourteen. We enjoyed a nice selection of desserts with our coffee, which included apple pie, pumpkin pie, custard pie, a decadent chocolate cake, brownies, and sugar cookies. We stayed for a few hours and then it was time to bring my parents home and for us to return to our place.



Edie relaxing at my cousin's place

Since that day, though, things have been going downhill a bit. Our TV is slowly dying and at any given point in any program, the screen will turn completely to a flickering white screen. It might correct itself after turning the TV off and back on again, but not always right away, sometimes it will work much later. It seems the TV has decided to "act up" a lot more since the holiday and we found ourselves cursing the darn thing on Friday night as it continued to cut out right in the middle of a show or when a show's climax was about to begin. We took our chances, anyway, and decided to watch our Miracle on 34th Street tape on Saturday night, but the "motor" in our VCR died and the machine ate the tape! The only way to retrieve the tape, it turned out, was to dismantle the VCR and, when we did, we had to pry the tape out. The tape itself was torn and somewhat pulled out of the case. So, both the VCR and the tape are but mere memories now.

Adding to all this frustration was yesterday's weather. Yesterday was Sunday and we had our first taste of winter. Oh, it was nothing, I suppose, to most people, but it was the realization that winter is going to be here when I had to be outdoors and was getting pelted by sleet. It warmed up enough later for it to turn to rain, but it was the hours of sleeting and, even with the rain, the temperatures still cold enough for me to find the day a bit bitter.

So, now it's Monday. I overslept and was awakened by the ringing of the business phone, so I missed the first business call of the day and had to call that person back. I needed coffee to wake up, but discovered Edie had not made a pot this morning before she went to work and that we were out of milk. I couldn't possibly go to the store until after showering and dressing, but the phone kept ringing and kept me from doing that. I finally managed to get that worked out, I also did a few things that had to be done in the bedroom (like changing the bed and hanging up clothes). Now, though, I want to do some blogging while I take a little break and enjoy a little more coffee.

But, no, frustration exists in this category, too. Oh, yeah, sure, I'm obviously posting something because it's here and it can be read and it can be read over at the other site, too. But, I've been having some problems at the other site that have not made things easy for me. My notifications page there doesn't work and I no longer receive notifications in my email, so checking for things written by my friends there have turned into hunting trips. I'm having a problem with the new feature for posting my avatar, too, but that problem is with my computer.

As soon as I get this posted, I'll have to go check out my printer. It keeps jamming up and I've done just about everything I can think of to eliminate the problem. But, apparently, I haven't thought of everything. Now, that is frustrating!