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Thread: The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

  1. #1
    Forum Member OldStrummer's Avatar
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    The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

    The madness that is 2020 now has us contemplating what those of us in 'Merica celebrate as Thanksgiving. It's typically a 2-day (four day weekend) holiday for us, and traditionally harkens in the beginning of the Christmas season. I've already seen neighbors dragging out their decorations in preparation!

    The people who want to run our lives are telling us not to travel this holiday. Some have gone so far as to try to make us feel guilty if we get together with more than six people. Sigh. I think I'm going to my daughter's house, but nothing's been finalized, yet. That's not travel; it's only about 20 miles away.

    I'm recovering today from a lot of bending over work yesterday. I have been cleaning up my back patio, and that involves weeding between the paver stones. There is some satisfaction of seeing the change once it's done, but I have to do it in one- or two-hour stretches because it just makes my back hurt.

    Today will be a day of rest. I'm reading a book by Orson Scott Card, one of my favorite authors, so I plan to give my back a break and just read. Church in a couple of hours, and then the rest of the day is an open book (pun intended)!

    Be well, everyone.
    Striving to be ordinary

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    Forum Member ch willie's Avatar
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    Re: The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

    Even if there's the slightest chance of me getting this thing, I'm not getting together with anyone. I hate it, but I'm high risk.

    When my wife and I moved into my house 16 years ago, she organized what went in the closets and cupboards and how things were arranged. We had two kids, and so we optimized space. When we divorced, I kept the house, and until about 6 mos ago, I stuck to all the ways she'd organized things. Just didn't think about it. So now, I'll start on one thing and then start three more jobs to change things up. Eventually I get these things best for my needs--why should I have a kitchen cabinet for plastic shopping bags when I can keep them in the garage and then take them back in for recycling? There are literally hundreds of things like that, and I'm proud of my progress. Every room has many things like that to re-do. It's a very enjoyable task.
    If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison

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    Forum Member gibsonjunkie's Avatar
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    Re: The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

    Happy Sunday, all. My brother from the same mother (as compared to my adopted brother), came up yesterday with his daughter and between the two of us we knocked out a bunch of the deck. I have today and taking tomorrow off to get it finished. Who knows? I also have been playing with a new PC. I had no intention of getting one - my current model was potent enough (I7 6th gen) 64GB RAM, 1/2 TB SSD and 2TD HDD, but this popped up on Amazon Vine for review so it cost me nothing. This sucker is a monster!







    The family decided to listen to the scientists and doctors and skip family get-togethers for the holidays. Hopefully next year will be brighter with a vaccine on the horizon.
    Last edited by gibsonjunkie; 11-22-2020 at 06:32 AM.
    "We catched fish and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness." Mark Twain

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    Forum Member dirtdog's Avatar
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    Re: The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

    About to head to my Mom’s old condo to continue painting, flooring and trim work. Seventh straight day doing that but close to the end. Carpet installation next week and will be listing it the week after.

    Gotta put the snow tires on today...supposed to have a Colorado Low moving through later tonight bringing 8-10 inches of snow. Guess I should break out my winter jackets.

    We would have celebrated out 10th Annual “Friendsgiving” last night but decided not to. Canadian Thanksgiving is in October (which we did not celebrate with anyone outside our household), but we started celebrating US Thanksgiving too when we had American friends come up for a visit ten Thanksgivings a go. We just kept up as a tradition. I was diagnosed with lymphoma a couple of months ago so I’m taking no chances. We likely would have cancelled anyways, but my current state of health meant zero handwringing in making that decision. It’ll probably be the same for Christmas. Which is fine by me.

    Enjoying my new-to-me Gretsch and continue to lay down bass tracks (audio and video) for some original material we’ll put up on YouTube.

    Nice work on the deck @gibsonjunkie!

  5. #5
    Forum Member DanTheBluesMan's Avatar
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    Re: The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

    We will not be doing any gathering for thanksgiving and likely christmas as well this year. My nephew will probably go to his mom's house for the day. My brother and I are planning on a football and pizza day with 3 games to watch.

    We ended up walking away from the house we were going to buy after there was undisclosed water damage found during the home inspection and we couldn't come to an agreement with the seller. We looked at one yesterday (basement was almost Silence Of The Lambs scary) and have another one today.

    So far my mom has not exhibited any respiratory distress, mostly a fever that they're treating with tylenol. She doesn't seem to have much interest in eating so I wonder if her sense of taste has gone away, she already didn't have much of a sense of smell.

    I've been frustrated by challenges in weight management, it's as if the cold weather has reduced my already lethargic metabolism from that of a lizard to one of a rock.

    Early game for a change, we actually have 4 one o'clock games out of the next 7 unless something gets flexed out (or gets cancelled due to covid). Figures the open house is 1:00 to 3:00. Must not be fans
    "Live and learn and flip the burns"

  6. #6
    Forum Member gibsonjunkie's Avatar
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    Re: The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by dirtdog View Post
    About to head to my Mom’s old condo to continue painting, flooring and trim work. Seventh straight day doing that but close to the end. Carpet installation next week and will be listing it the week after.

    Gotta put the snow tires on today...supposed to have a Colorado Low moving through later tonight bringing 8-10 inches of snow. Guess I should break out my winter jackets.

    We would have celebrated out 10th Annual “Friendsgiving” last night but decided not to. Canadian Thanksgiving is in October (which we did not celebrate with anyone outside our household), but we started celebrating US Thanksgiving too when we had American friends come up for a visit ten Thanksgivings a go. We just kept up as a tradition. I was diagnosed with lymphoma a couple of months ago so I’m taking no chances. We likely would have cancelled anyways, but my current state of health meant zero handwringing in making that decision. It’ll probably be the same for Christmas. Which is fine by me.

    Enjoying my new-to-me Gretsch and continue to lay down bass tracks (audio and video) for some original material we’ll put up on YouTube.

    Nice work on the deck @gibsonjunkie!
    Thanks on the deck comments. I need to fix a couple things that my brother did wrong, but in general it's in pretty good shape. I need to switch out my summer tires on the Mustang this week, too. Summer performance tires get hard and can crack below 40 degrees, so I have some all-seasons that go on for the winter. I never drive it in bad weather ,but there are a lot of days where it's great enough to drive.
    "We catched fish and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness." Mark Twain

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    Re: The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

    GJ--the deck and the new computer look great!

    Same here for Thanksgiving. Just my wife and sons, with a couple Zooms set up to connect to other relatives as the day goes on.

    Rainy day here in C-bus, so some time on the treadmill and some aimless guitar playing in the studio are in order.

  8. #8
    Forum Member DanTheBluesMan's Avatar
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    Re: The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by pc View Post
    GJ--the deck and the new computer look great!

    Same here for Thanksgiving. Just my wife and sons, with a couple Zooms set up to connect to other relatives as the day goes on.

    Rainy day here in C-bus, so some time on the treadmill and some aimless guitar playing in the studio are in order.
    omg, treadmill. If and when we ever get a house, the first purchase will be a grill and treadmill.
    "Live and learn and flip the burns"

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    Re: The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by DanTheBluesMan View Post
    omg, treadmill.
    Love/hate the treadmill. I've dropped just shy of 80 pounds so far in 2020, mostly by walking (then eventually running) outdoors. The weather has been really cooperative since mid-May, but, the few rainy days that happened in there, the treadmill the backup. Now that winter is around the corner, it'll be that a lot more. Not a huge fan, but, exercise is exercise I guess. We have ours in our rec-room, facing the big TV, so, at least I can entertain myself that way if I can't be outside.

  10. #10
    Forum Member Offshore Angler's Avatar
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    Re: The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

    Way to go Pete. Lost a bunch a few years back and it really makes you feel better, especially as we get older.

    Mrs. OSA as some of you know had two really bad health incidents and almost didn't make it. She was transferred to better hospitals TWICE this year. Once by special ambulance and then once by helicopter. (BTW, I hope you guys never get a bill for that - it ain't cheap!)

    She's now much better and I've been dieting and exercising with her to give her support and get myself back into form.

    On a sad note, lost another friend Friday. That's three so far. That people don't take this Covid seriously is beyond my comprehension.

    Mom's still kickin' in her late eighties, had chemo this year and just had a hernia surgery last week. Needless to say we won't be getting together with my wife and mom being super high riskers.

    Doing some recording lately. When this is over there's a chance Rickenjangle and I may do something cool together.

    Boats are out of the water. I'll go down to the marina and work on upgrades soon.

    Chuck
    "No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim

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    Forum Member Don's Avatar
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    Re: The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

    We're done raking leaves! I'm exhausted and sore! To make matters worse, not only did I clean the gutters, I swapped speakers in my 1x12 and 2x12 cabs yesterday. The connections are soldered and the cabs are too big for my bench so I did it while squatting on the floor.

    I had a Scumnico in my 1x12 cab. It sounded ok, but I wanted to try the Scumback M75-PVC that worked so well in the Budda Twinmaster. It turned out to be way too bright on its own with my Avatar 45. Then I decided to pull the Scumback S75-PVC alnicos out of the 2x12 cab, put one of them in the 1x12 cab (it's just right!) and put the Scumnico and the M75-PVC in the 2x12 cab. They sound good together. The Scumnico is a little warmer and "softer" sounding and balances out the M75-PVC.
    Last edited by Don; 11-22-2020 at 11:54 AM.

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    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
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    Re: The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

    Lazy Sunday here. We were going to jam at a motorcycle club's clubhouse yard last night but couldn't do it, our drummer's got a bad case of sinusitis.

    Me and the wife went out to buy a pie (we didn't feel like baking this morning) and headed to my parents' to have lunch with them.



    Played the Rickenbacker with a germanium Fuzzface for an hour. No gigs with the band scheduled until who knows when, so I can relax and be more at ease with the guitars, play whatever I want.

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    Forum Member gibsonjunkie's Avatar
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    Re: The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by DanTheBluesMan View Post
    omg, treadmill. If and when we ever get a house, the first purchase will be a grill and treadmill.
    I used my treadmill religiously for about a year and now it makes a convenient place to sort laundry.
    "We catched fish and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness." Mark Twain

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    Forum Member dirtdog's Avatar
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    Re: The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by gibsonjunkie View Post
    I used my treadmill religiously for about a year and now it makes a convenient place to sort laundry.
    LOL!

    This summer I managed to drop 25-30 lbs. Like @pc, first by walking in the early stages of COVID but then cycling almost every day after a 10+ year break from riding recreationally and competitively for years before that. Working from home, I'd split my workday up and take a mid-afternoon PT break - right up until the week before last, I was doing a fast paced 40km on the road bike every other day and a 60 minute mountain bike ride on the other days. Average of 80 minutes of cycling each day for the better part of six months. My fitness hasn't been this good in a decade, at least.

    I was thinking about buying a fatbike for snow riding this winter, but I missed on the last of this year's stock by a week or so. Instead, I will set my road bike up on my fluid trainer and train along to various videos that these guys produce:



    Keeps the boredom away for sure but even then, 45 minutes is my limit for riding inside - at least I can do a 35 minute HIIT session like the video above and keep some sort of fitness up over the winter. Otherwise, I have my XC skis and snowshoes and I live a 5 minute drive from a half decent trail network.

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    Forum Member dirtdog's Avatar
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    Re: The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by Sérgio View Post
    Lazy Sunday here. We were going to jam at a motorcycle club's clubhouse yard last night but couldn't do it, our drummer's got a bad case of sinusitis.

    Me and the wife went out to buy a pie (we didn't feel like baking this morning) and headed to my parents' to have lunch with them.



    Played the Rickenbacker with a germanium Fuzzface for an hour. No gigs with the band scheduled until who knows when, so I can relax and be more at ease with the guitars, play whatever I want.
    That's purdy!

  16. #16
    Forum Member DanTheBluesMan's Avatar
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    Re: The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

    many moons ago, I moved back to the folks' house. There, I partook of many helpings of pasta, potatoes, rice. You name it, I ate 3 servings. For some reason I went from 155 to 196 in a surprisingly short period of time. It was when I saw a picture of myself in shorts and t-shirts, while hiking with friends, and I saw the rolls hanging over my belt with another roll on top that I was motivated to start exercising more. There was a treadmill in the basement, and a nearby TV with VCR.

    I actually used that VCR as an audio playback machine. I had recorded dozens of VHS cassettes worth of WGBH's Blues After Hours shows, 8 hours to a tape. First I wore out two motors in that treadmill, then I wore out the VCR. By then I was down 30 pounds which I've striven since then to maintain.

    For some reason, in spite of the 3.4 miles a day I'm averaging, I'm slowly increasing again. It couldn't be the 3-4 beers (pints, really) a night, could it? I'm enjoying the proximity of the bars and pubs just a little bit much. The only solution is to increase my walking. Ayup
    "Live and learn and flip the burns"

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    Forum Member OldStrummer's Avatar
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    Re: The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by gibsonjunkie View Post
    I used my treadmill religiously for about a year and now it makes a convenient place to sort laundry.
    This is the average life span of a treadmill. I once advised my dad to not get a treadmill. "It will become a clothes hanger," I told him. A couple of years later he admitted I was correct.

    For the past several decades I've been a distance runner. I learned that if I wanted to use up that much energy, I wanted to go somewhere.

    Sadly, I ran my last 5K this month. I have a chronic hip problem. One that isn't fixable with surgery.
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    Forum Member vinyl's Avatar
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    Re: The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

    So nowadays, we can't be thankful? My mom was in respiratory distress back in 2015. Nothing to do with Covid 19.

    She died.
    I miss her and my dad. But I'm thankful for the rest of my family.

    We lose loved ones. It's family that gets us through it. We don't get over it. We get through it.
    Sometimes we don't immediately recognize what to be thankful for, I'm thankful for the rest of my family, even though I can't spend any time with them this year. Hopefully, next year will be different.

    I'm also thankful for the few friends I have here.

    Maybe they are fewer than I think. The friend I miss most is Phantoman.

    Me? I'd rather recognize people or things to be thankful for, because I might not be around next year to do that. Tomorrow is promised to no one. I'm about to send a happy birthday card to my 90 year old aunt.

    We've all had to make sacrifices this year. I'd still rather be thankful.

    I'll stop now before I get too political. I'll just say I won't be buying anything from certain countries, including anything from Fender made in China. That may be difficult, I need some new shoes.

    Despite the hoopla, all of this shit originated in China.

    As usual, this is my opinion, but I can't say I've seen anything that Covid19 didn't originate in China.

    Suck it up.

    May be my last post.

  19. #19
    Forum Member Laker's Avatar
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    Re: The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

    I missed the whole day so I hope all had a good one! Yesterday my mother celebrated 101 years on the planet and we had a great time.

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    Forum Member vinyl's Avatar
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    Re: The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by Laker View Post
    I missed the whole day so I hope all had a good one! Yesterday my mother celebrated 101 years on the planet and we had a great time.
    Used to be that anyone who celebrated over 100 years got a birthday card from the White House. Regardless, Congratulations to your mother, She needs to be recognized for achieiving such a landmark!

  21. #21
    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
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    Re: The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by dirtdog View Post
    That's purdy!
    It is! I love my Rickenbacker, and I am planning on taking it on the road more often now that I ordered a trapeze tailpiece for it. The R tailpieces are haunted by the sudden explosion lore, and RIC makes a serious point in not selling that part without a whole process of sending the broken one to them first. Add to that the fact that my country has been through a financial crisis, RIC could just decide not to issue that part anymore any day, and all that jazz... So I ordered a stainless steel (unbreakable) tailpiece for it and to hell with worries.

    BTW solid bodied Rickenbackers ROCK! I gigged with this guitar a couple of times; the neck is faster than an SG's and it is super lightweight.

    Besides Rickenbackers, Gretsches and such guitars look SO cool!

  22. #22
    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
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    Re: The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by Laker View Post
    I missed the whole day so I hope all had a good one! Yesterday my mother celebrated 101 years on the planet and we had a great time.
    I saw the picture and the mention you made on Facebook! You are a very lucky man. I am in my 40s and still got both, my father and my mother, alive and well, and I tell you my friend: I thank the Lord every single day for that. I try to do my best to be around them and be of service at all times.

  23. #23
    Forum Member jrgtr42's Avatar
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    Re: The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

    I think I'm doing |Thankgiving with my brother-in-law and SIL. We've already broken the bubble with them over the summer - they've watched the kiddo a few times, so ||I don;t think we're risking much with it. EVen so, with 5 of us, we'll be having way too much food - they're doing a small turkey, I think, and a few sides. We're doing a scalloped roast potato thing, I'm getting a rack of ribs going, baking a loaf or 2 of bread.
    several beverages and so forth in planning.

    I weighed myself this morning and I'm down about 10 or 12 pounds over the COVID. Mostly increasing running. I've been running a few years, before it was once, maybe twice a week. This year It's been 4 or 5 times a week I've gotten out. I don't know that I enjoy running like I do cycling, but the feeling once I finish is great. Usually running 3.5 miles or so, I've done a few 10K distances - 6.2 miles and kept pace to around 10:30 / mile for that distance - pretty happy with that. Still working on breaking a 30 minute 5K, though. Wqe do have a treadmill in the basement, had it a couple years, and we go in spurts of using it. I think now that winter is upon us, it'll get used more - I'll run outside as long as the temps are in the 50s. I do suppose I could have lost more if I cut back on the beer too, but...
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  24. #24
    Forum Member Laker's Avatar
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    Re: The Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by Sérgio View Post
    I saw the picture and the mention you made on Facebook! You are a very lucky man. I am in my 40s and still got both, my father and my mother, alive and well, and I tell you my friend: I thank the Lord every single day for that. I try to do my best to be around them and be of service at all times.
    Sergio, my brother (only sibling) died in ‘95 thanks to Agent Orange and my father passed away a year later leaving my dear old mom and I as the Sole survivors of our immediate family. I wish I could change that, but it is what it is.

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