Sky Smile

Driving 580 coming home from Novato this evening, the sunset was in three wide bands of blue, orange, and foggy purple. There was a slim crescent moon and soon two bright stars, one off each end of the crescent. It looked like a benevolent face smiling down on the Bay.


I did not try to take a photo. I know the limits of my skills as a photographer - especially while riding in a car - and the limits of the photo abilities of a cell phone. Imagine this.

UPDATE 12/3/08:
Here is a photo of the moon and planets over Hong Kong that almost matches what I saw.

Thanksgiving Traditions

We don't have any. Other than a couple dozen, or more, people at my mom's house, and particular dishes, that is. A friend of the family's brought her yams with pecans and mandarin oranges for years, and the last two years she has brought them to the house and left for another Thanksgiving dinner. She even brings the yams in the same dish every year. Another friend, when she's not in LA with her daughter and he son-in-law's family, always brings Brussels sprouts in some form.


A volunteer at the food bank told me that in her family, everyone writes what they are thankful for on slips of paper which are then baked into crescent rolls. When the rolls come to the table, each person takes one and reads the slip, and then everyone guesses who wrote which one.


I really like this idea but I don't think I could institute it at Mom's. Our Thanksgivings now require two or three tables, and hardly anyone eats rolls. With three kinds of stuffing, we don't exactly need them.

A Post for Nov. 28

KT's mom arrived for Thanksgiving with some kind of stomach bug which happily took up residence in KT and No. It's our favorite holiday and No had to miss it - when you have a stomach bug, you don't really want to be around food, but more importantly, and considerately, they didn't want to bring the bug to the unsuspecting crowds at Chez Mom.


I was exposed to the bug also since Kt, No, KT's folks and I had dinner together Tuesday evening, but I thought I'd dodged it. I don't get stomach trouble often and when I do it's just usually lots of burping. It hit me late last night - as the last folks were leaving, actually - and kept me up all night. I thought I'd have lots of time to leisurely write a post today but since I haven't eaten since yesterday and have been either sleepy or sleeping, the brain's not firing up.


But I am committed to posting every day. Now that you've come to the end I guess I can mention that my committing to write every day doesn't mean you have to read every day...

Food Bank Bailout

To see this editorial cartoon by Signe Wilkinson, go here. This is what it looks like at my food bank.


If you want to find a food bank in your community, do an internet search for "food bank" and the name of your city, county, state, or region. If you're in the US, you can go to the website for Feeding America, formerly America's Second Harvest.

It's the weekend

It's a nice long one too and that's great because I'm really tired.


Yesterday was a great day, but very long: I arrived at work at 9am and left at 730pm. In the meantime I was involved with our big turkey giveaway, at which we gave turkeys to 378 families. The line was a block long, but we got everyone a turkey, stuffing, and gravy in just over two hours with help from the Alameda Fire Department and staff at Wind River Software.


Did I take a break then? No, I went back to the trailer and signed up or recertified a bunch of families. I walked over to the coffeehouse and got the most spectacular drink I've gotten in years: I ordered a regular hot chocolate but because I'm well-known in the neighborhood as a food bank do-gooder, the folks in the store gave me an enormous HC with caramel sauce and a big fluff of whipped cream with chocolate shavings and more caramel sauce on it. It was so rich it carried me through for the rest of the day.


... Which included serving 50 people at the regular pantry program in the evening. We normally serve 25, but all of the volunteers, without saying anything to me, were determined to stay until everyone who walked in by 630pm got served. No, KT, and KT's folks showed up, doubling my staff, and we couldn't have done it without them. They packed bags, helped clients make selections, accepted and logged donations, and generally freed me up to do new client intakes and general taking-care-of-people. We were serving an hour after we closed.


This time of year is stressful and busy and all of that. I've been getting paid in hugs and smiles, which is a great bonus.

Turkey Says Eat Beef

Or Gardenburgers

Turkey Says Eat Pork