Just another odd Thanksgiving. My mother-in-law decided we were coming to her house this year without any real consultation. We do try to alternate years between the big family lunches to be fair. My in-laws decided this was their year. It wasn't, but my wife just wanted to roll with it.
So, we rolled with that and planned my parents for Sunday. My parents are fairly affable and try to be accommodating.
Tuesday my mother-in-law-dearest decided that she wasn't having Thanksgiving on Thursday because she would rather go to her niece's house. She then proceeded to call my wife and her brother and reschedule them for Sunday at the same time as my family's planned get together.
My wife pointed out that we'd already scheduled for a Sunday lunch, but the plan stood. That was going to leave us having to decide between parents.
We decided we'd go to my Dad's family get-together on Thanksgiving to try to balance it back out. My mother-in-law (who called Wed) was not happy with that plan. She decided that we should go with her on Thanksgiving to her neice's house and then come over on Sunday (although that did negate my parents nearly absolutely). My wife did put her foot down that we weren't giving her two Thanksgivings, but my mother-in-law won with guilt Thanksgiving not spending time with my parents.
So Thursday I loaded into the Volvo, without anywhere to head, and tried to take my wife out to eat lunch and salvage part of the day. Most everywhere was closed for Thanksgiving. So we ate at Waffle House.
I had a Waffle House Thanksgiving. I was being nice. When we pulled back into the house my wife told me to take a ride. That sounded great. I used to love Holiday rides! Holiday rides can be more challenging because the gas stations are closed and create an added obstacle to plan around as you ride. It sounded great. The weather was magnificent. I asked my wife if she'd come with me...no. Apparently she had to wait on her mother to bring her something (not my wife's idea). I suggested that they could leave it on the porch, but my wife (who was also not having a good day because of her mother) decided she's sit and wait. I couldn't leave her on a holiday, so I didn't ride.
The next morning my wife and my mother went off black-friday shopping. I wrestled a printer to get a paper printed and then hopped on the bike to take the paper to the post-office. I mailed it, then realized I had no one at home waiting on me and took a ride.
I didn't exactly know when my wife would get back, so I had rode about 100 miles, had lunch somewhere in the middle, and went back to the house. Somewhere in that morning my mother-in-law called my wife and decided to cancel Thanksgiving all together, which sucked because she'd spent so much of the week changing my plans, but was probably for the best because I'm not sure how polite I could have been Sunday afternoon.
So I did get a little bit of a ride in on Friday. Nothing special but it was good to be in the saddle and not heading to work. The forecast called for rain, but I stayed dry.
On a positive note, because we weren't rushing around with the family today, I was able to check the community college website and realized that a full-time position has been announced, so I was able to spend time Friday applying for that. I would really like a full time job again and some insurance. That would be nice.
I do have a lot to be Thankful for. I'm healthy, happily married, and working. Family time is typically good time (sorta).
Overall life is good.
Monday rolled back around and I'm back to commuting for the next few weeks.
