Well just like the rest of the year, this Thanksgiving has been like no other. First off, it was just the 4 of us today as Nana and Gung Gung celebrated their Thanksgiving in Virgina. Secondly, it seemed like it took us 3 hours to make dinner and we were done eating in about 30 minutes or maybe even less. Then, of course, another hour to clean up and we were done with everything before 2pm. We originally had planned on having dinner at 2pm, but the turkey cooked quicker than we calculated and so we had to scramble a little to get all the sides done. On the menu was roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, homemade Mac n Cheese, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberries and green bean casserole. To wet our whistle, we had apple cider mimosas. We do have lots of side dish leftovers, but honestly not much turkey. Whoever said that you should plan on 11/2 -2 pounds per person of turkey if you want leftovers, clearly never met our boys. Never the less, we are thankful for the good meal and a day or two of leftovers.

We’ve had a fairly cool fall so far, so it was kind of unusual for Raphael to drop by… or was it Michelangelo? To be honest, we don’t know which of the Ninja Turtles was in our yard a couple of days ago, but we are sure it was probably headed for higher ground as we have had a little over 4″ of rain the last 2 days. Raphael didn’t seem too worried as he made time for Sam to snap a couple of photos of him before he wandered off.

Well not something you would normally find in your shed… an opossum sleeping in a bag of dirt. Judging by his size he couldn’t have been too old, because we have seen much larger ones wandering around in the past. He seemed nice and snuggled up in the bag, but Dad wasn’t really too keen on leaving him there so Mom dragged the bag out onto the ramp and coaxed him out. As you can see, he wasn’t really very happy about being woken up in the middle of the day either. Alex, Sam and Mom all stood around and watch him walk off while Dad was questioning the logic of standing so close, but in the end he wandered off to hopefully find his family. At least he didn’t go into catatonic shock/play dead because we’re not sure what we would have done with him then. Later, when Dad was pulling the lawnmower out to mow the front yard, he realized that the little critter managed to poop on the lawnmower too – seems he had a busy night.

Later for Family dinner we had Bangers n’ Mash and Fish N’ Chips… seems Dad was watching Sky News in the workshop and thinking about all the pubs that would be closing on Thursday. Mom, of course, opted for oatmeal.

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Considering it was a Saturday night, Halloween, a Full/Blue moon and in this twin year 2020, it was pretty uneventful. Mom cleaned out some closets and filled a couple of trash bags with clothes for donation. Dad worked on the computer and changed some light bulbs on the Freelander, while the boys did the usual, absolutely nothing, unless you consider playing video games and watching YouTube videos something? We did decide to splurge and we ordered out for dinner at Cheddar’s. The boys had hamburgers, Mom a salad and Dad a very uninspired chicken dinner. A quick stop at Farm Fresh grocery store for some candy and everyone is now at home in a very dark house. Realistically we doubt we are going to get any trick or treaters coming through the neighborhood this year, although we did see several of the neighbors with young kids next door. Just a few neighborhood kids will probably/hopefully be the extent of things this year. We do have a wild and crazy night planned as we have The Great British Baking show and Mandalorian for Mom and Dad, while the boys will most likely be in front of their computers playing video games the rest of the night. Since Alex and Mom both have to be at work in the morning at 6am and Dad has a lot of little projects planned the next couple of days, we will probably be in bed early tonight.

Sam completed his last dive yesterday and is now a NAUI Worldwide Advanced and Nitrox certified scuba diver! Sam got in two dives yesterday and they were both only down to 77′ as the weather wasn’t ideal and he picked up a couple more shells for Mom and saw a 3′ mackerel as well. Sam is now able to go on a lot more dives with this new certification and hopefully to be able to see more shipwrecks and that elusive shark he has been wanting to see.

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Sam had another dive on Saturday, so it was another trip to the beach or in this case beaches for Mom and Dad. Sam has had an incredible summer for diving as he didn’t have any cancelled dives for weather this year – almost all the hurricanes went to the Gulf coast instead of up the Atlantic coast. If you include the quarry dives, we think he actually has had 7 total dives this summer with one more scheduled for October 20th. The 20th should be his last dive this year and it will be his Advanced Certification dive where he will be out from 6am until 3pm and going to a depth of at least 100′.

While Sam was diving, Mom and Dad went to Fort Macon State Park – their usual modus operandi. This time though, Dad went to the Fort to take a few photos and Mom went to find some seashells as she apparently doesn’t have enough yet. Unfortunately, tide was too high and there weren’t any seashells to be found… well at least not at this beach. Two beaches later at Pine Knolls beach, Mom was able to find a few so the trip wasn’t a total loss. Luckily for Mom, Sam also picked her up 3 new shells from the bottom of the ocean (about 65′ down). Sam said he would have had a fourth seashell, but it was apparently still inhabited.

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After a long day doing some work from home and then installing a new garbage disposer, Dad decided it would be a great night to watch a movie. Dinner was hamburgers on the grill for Dad and the boys, while Mom had some unusual pesto zucchini with grilled chicken. After dinner we watched the new Enola Holmes movie on Netflix out on the deck. Since it was a little chilly last night, at least by North Carolina standards, we made good use of the fire pit too. Of course not everything went off without a hitch, Dad thought he had all the gear he needed, but in fact he had to make several trips to the basement to find the right cables. So the movie didn’t actually start until around 8:30pm, which is almost our bed time. Then just when everything was almost ready, he spills the nacho cheese all over the deck.

Alex had to work tonight but we told him we would save him some dinner. On the menu, fettuccine Alfredo with grilled chicken. We also got to enjoy the lovely weather and a little surprise for dessert.

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Well it’s not great but it’s not bad either. Sam scored a 75 on his first project in Welding class. Sam did say there were other students in the 80’s and a couple in the 90s, but considering he mostly avoids any tools at home like they are the corona virus this is a pretty good start. 😃 Overall Sam has an A so far in Welding class and he has a B in his math class, with an A in English.

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October 3rd was one of those amazing Saturdays in Fall when everything was just perfect. It was a beautiful sunny day with the temp in the high 70’s and a great day to be lazy and enjoy the weather, relax on the deck or maybe even take a nap. Wait…. what the !#$&?? Apparently Mom didn’t get the memo because we had a few things to do before any of that relaxing could start. First up the deck needed to power washed. We, of course, needed to do this so we could then move the table to the other end of the deck and build the portable greenhouse for the jungle, aka the hibiscus, to survive the winter months. It was definitely not part of the original plan, but since the power washer was already out and the new surface cleaner Dad bought was working so well, we decided to go ahead and power wash the sidewalk and the driveway too. After that the yard still needed to be mowed, the Halloween decorations put up and Sam still wanted to put up his new computer mount and extra monitor. Hmmm…. just a walk in the park that lasted until about 7pm that night. Hopefully there will another perfect Saturday in the forecast over the next few weeks.

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