. For Thanksgiving I'm picking up dad and then heading southwest to meet my cousin and her friend for an early dinner at a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse (expensive, especially if you like to drink...I think it's $50 a person, not including alcohol or tip). But we're a small group and no one wants to cook. I'll be home by dark at around the time most families are just starting to sit down at the table. I'm looking forward to it though I dislike the drive.
I love turkey with gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce and each year ask myself why I only eat this once a year. I guess because it takes a lot to cook it all, and my desire to cook has really slumped in the past year. I still cook all my meals from scratch and eat out just once a week with dad.
Since I last wrote here, I organized another litter cleanup (the 4th in my hometown), different location. I had 4 new volunteers show up, including a Legislative Council member. The guy I've been in touch with from DPW came at the end with his pickup and on his own time (it was Sunday) helped us load the trash and he took it away to weigh and dump it; later he told me we'd picked up 420 pounds, so I was pumped. That included 3 old tires and an unopened package of coffee.
Not only that, but 2 of the women who volunteered were so enthusiastic and offering to do more, I invited them both to join me as organizers. There's a ton of stuff to do, from posting on social media before and after each cleanup to sending a press release to local paper, coordinating with DPW and police, etc. One woman has happily accepted so far; I plan to call our first meeting at my home sometime in January. She has a PR background and is already talking about a blog, website and our own FB page. I'm not so sure about all that right away becus it means we're "committed," and maybe at some point I'll want to move on to something else, or we don't get enough volunteers to make it worthwhile or maybe people's enthusiasm will wane over time (town has been enormously supportive thus far, but actually showing up to help is a different thing). I think I would like to give it a year and see if we can maintain a steady rate of volunteers.
We need to map out more (safe) roads to hit, ideally creating a calendar so we know what's coming up, think about how often we want to organize cleanups (no one wants to do this in heat of summer) and there are a dozen other logistical items to hash out. The other woman agreed with me we will need to start getting people to sign liability waivers when they arrive. Basically to give us some protection if someone gets hurt. I hate to introduce "paperwork" into the whole process, but I think it's very important. I can copy the waiver my statewide group was using.
I am bracing for a big hike in my electric rate come Jan 1. My state allows consumers to shop for their own supplier. I had locked in a very low rate of 8.79 per kilowatt hour in 2024, but my 2-year contract expires end of December. I've already checked the state website showing all suppliers and their rates, and the lowest now is 11.89 per k/hour. So it's really going to be a big spike unless prices fall in the next 30 days, which seems unlikely.
Oh, and if you're wondering what happened with the man I was dating....he actually ghosted me. We went out twice and had a nice time both times. Then he asked me to go to a classical guitar concert. I turned him down on that one due to the timing but later followed up with him to see how it was. Then I never heard from him again. So I'm not sure what happened. He had a troubled family life growing up and I remember him telling me that he avoids conflict at all costs. His words. We had no conflict, but if he decided privately that I wasn't the right person for him, he may have wanted to avoid having to tell me in case I didn't take it well. So in retrospect, it's for the best. I don't think it would work to be in a relationship with someone like that. It would just be impossible.
November 27th, 2025 at 08:42 am 1764232979
In my personal opinion, all the couples I’ve ever met have conflict somewhere. The ones that I see that end up lasting are those who have managed to worked out their differences through communication and compromises somehow. To be fair, I do not know what this man has gone through, but unfortunately, it is simply not possible at all to avoid all conflict at all cost. Sooner or later, we all have to learn to deal with our differences in ourselves and each other…. Which is made even weird if you are saying that there are no conflicts at all.
At any rate, I hope you and your family have a very nice Turkey day!
November 28th, 2025 at 01:10 pm 1764335406