Thanksgiving Week

BOLT, the Superdog, entertained our twin grandsons and us yesterday. With John Travolta's voice and John Lassiter's fine direction, this 3-D cartoon movie was exceptionally good. The storyline is a little daunting for five-year-olds, but the main character is charming and a real hero. Everything was fine until grandpa forgot what he was doing, and ate the gummybears that Jack, in particular, wanted.

The film capped an interesting week -- one with enormous pathos around the Mumbai tragedies, significant announcements (including Hillary) by President-elect Obama, continued stock market malaise or worse, plus idiotic statements by the Big Three of Detroit. The announcement this morning of yet another major Ice Shelf collapse in Antartica should serve as a grim reminder that the world has many real and perceived threats, threats that command our attention and concern.

We liked the Super Powers of BOLT, and would like to harness them for the good of the planet, but when he realized that his super powers were illusory, it was quite sobering. Not unlike my own feelings of impotence for dealing with any of the global concerns. Not sure how you feel.

Over time, this blog may tackle some of these questions -- not with any thought of solving them, but with the hope that we might stimulate some thinking amongst our group for positive actions and perspective on how each of us might in fact "make a difference" for our community, nation, and world in addition to our impact on our loved ones.

Fortunately, people everywhere, and maybe especially Americans, seem able to set aside these larger questions when a chance arises to have families get together, re-assemble, grant love all around, and give thanks for all of our many blessings. Thanksgiving week is one of those times.

Tuesday, we drove to daughter Cindy's home in Westlake Village, where she and her family (husband Charlie, stepsons Divan and Chris, Divan's new wife Dhorty from Australia, Chris' friend Julie, Cindy's sons Sam and Jack, and my daughter Liesl and her daughter Madi joined with Jenny and me for a few days with three enthusiastic dogs. Yes, we took Zoe and Sadie with us. Zoe had just finished radiation for a tumor removal, and they advised not boarding her. We're concerned about her, especially with a new bump that we just found, but she is a tough cookie so we're hopeful that she'll prevail.

Friday, we went down to my nephew David's home in Anaheim Hills, just across the freeway from the recent Yorba Linda fire -- and an even closer set of burned-out apartments and homes from fiery embers that jumped an eight-lane freeway. Fifty-three residences were destroyed within a mile of David's place, along with a terrifying canyon upsweep that got within a half-mile. David and his family readied for evacuation, but were able to stay as it turned out.

On the way back to the Bay area, we stopped by Santa Barbara, and saw a worse sight. Our hilltop home -- the Sound of Music home for those of you that knew it -- was a survivor, but the home across the street, and 22 homes on the street, plus all but two down Camino Alto (which deadended at our driveway) were destroyed in what was called the Montecito Tea fire two weeks ago. Our old home has now survived three major fire threats in thirty-one years, a charmed survivor indeed. But it was sobering to see many neighbor's homes gone; the smell of acrid smoke hung heavy in the air, and our hearts were saddened by the scene.

David, in the presence of his wife Kristen and three boys -- Ryan, a sprouting 13 year old, Lucas at 11, and James at 8 -- plus his mother Diane, and sister Mary and a host of other guests, said blithely that he was going to stay and use his garden hose to "save his home". He desribed two friends who in fact did just that, while homes around them burned to the ground.

Our view? No home is worth risking your life, and as they said in Montecito, flames reaching 200 feet in the air, are bigger than a garden hose retardant. Much discussion ensued about what did you put in your car to save? Mementos -- mostly picture albums and artwork -- plus pets, of course, were the chief things loaded in cars for the potential evacuees. What would you select? Jane Laidley, in the terrible Oakland fire, saved her cat, her paintings, and her photo albums, but lost her lifetime journals, and forever after felt that a big part of her died that day

All of these tribulations aside, over three days libations flowed, the turkey was roasted, basted, and carved alongside a sumptuous dressing and the obligatory mashed potatoes and gravy, plus sweet potatoes and corn pudding and fresh cranberry sauce. Of course, pumpkin pies, made by our granddaughter Madi -- umm, tasty!

Daughter Sharon and her family drove from Arkansas to Colorado Springs where they joined her brother Warren and his new bride Laura to be with their mother Gayle and her husband Rick. Sharon was in the WalMart store in Colorado Springs at 4am on Friday (no, that wasn't the one where the doors got ripped off and the store employee trampled to death -- can you believe it?).

It was snowing in Colorado, but not in Tahoe where Merm and Niffer's family joined with Tom and Martha and friends for Happy Thanksgiving.
And so it was, around the loop, at least for the places that we sampled. We hope you and yours had a grand week as well.

Love, Chuck