Agreed, -t.

Sounds sensible, Sheryl.

M and I are about to go for a walk... it's a lovely 64 degrees here.

I don't think I'll ever have a real family Christmas ever again -- my brothers aren't stepping up to host, and my remaining cousin is in St. Louis, so it doesn't seem like I'll have a place to go.

I want Teppy's nun drama as a limited TV series.

The only reason this is possible is that the prospective hosts just moved this summer, so it's not that garage-y yet...

I thought it was you who mentioned it Jesse, but I was too lazy to go back and check.

We've lived here 17 years. It's a 1-car garage under the house and we've never parked the car in it. You can walk through it, but even if we cleaned it out, it would be so grey and grim.

I was going to add we don't have a big table we could use in the garage, but that's a baldfaced lie. It's just that the clean laundry pile has lived on it so long, I'd forgotten it was actually a folding banquet table.

Intellectually I've acknowledged that the family Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings aren't happening this year, but I'm repressing that knowledge on the emotional side, because I run the ragged edge of crying a couple days a week already, and I don't need to add to that.

I'm sorry Atropa. That stinks. I think I cry every day now over something. It's not all sorrow. I'm also angry crier, and an "I'm so touched" crier.

I don't think I'll ever have a real family Christmas ever again -- my brothers aren't stepping up to host, and my remaining cousin is in St. Louis, so it doesn't seem like I'll have a place to go.

Theo, did your brothers start not stepping up this year, or is it a thing that predates the pandemic?

Relatedly, how do you spell the sound you make when you kind of puff out your cheeks and slowly blow all the air out of your body, so you don't cry?

I want to say "phew" but I am not totally happy with that because out of context it looks like a "that's a relief" noise and it isn't exactly that but spelling is ambiguous like that.

Yeah, I tried to sound it out, and came up with "Whew" but it has the same relief connotation, -t. I've been sitting here like a loon, trying to figure it out. I think I'm going with Hhwhew.

Yeah, there is a testing site about 5 minutes from my home and we get results the next day. I've been testing every other week, and Pix is testing on the alternate weeks, so between the two of us we are never farther out that 7 days on a test. I've also had a worksite that is operating under the filming rules for Covid, so we need to be tested once a week on that site to be able to enter. I think I've had around a dozen tests at this point.

Tests have been relatively easy to get in MA, too. That's part of our plan for my oldest son and my mom, depending on what her doc says.

We got them done before we went to Maine in August, but they weren't cheap, and then Maine exempted MA from testing a couple of weeks later. With Covid rates rising almost everywhere, I don't know if they'll remain so easy to get, but MA is a good state for it.

I want Teppy's nun drama as a limited TV series.

It would be much less action filled than Warrior Nun.

Thankfully tests are free in California, and in Los Angeles we are consistently getting results in 24 hours and they guarantee results in 48 hours.

My aunt's family always hosted, but now my aunt and cousin David (the professional chef) are both gone, and my uncle is in a memory care place near my cousin in St Lou.

I'm sorry, Theo. For those losses and for the change to your traditions. That's hard.

My DP sent me an article this morning about the vagaries of being a turkey farmer in these pandemic times. Makes me want to buy a fresh, 20-lb. turkey for the two of us so Drew Bowman of New Carlisle, OH doesn't go under. Shallow note - pretty nattily dressed turkey farmer, though I guess that's probably not how he dresses to feed the turkeys. Or maybe it is. Who am I to judge? It's WP, so paywall after the free article limit.

ETA: OK, not that natty on the big screen, but still nice. I like the shirt. Majestic Turkey King shot though!

ETAA: Apologies for insensitivity or jokiness; it's more of a "Huh, I hadn't thought of that," as opposed to the many obvious-to-me industries that are being affected.

From what I've been told, it's always been pretty precarious to raise turkeys because the demand is so strongly seasonal. I'm sure it's more uncertain now, though

I saw the article about the turkey farmers (didn't read it through, but got the gist). Perhaps if they could sell smaller/younger turkeys there would be a market, what with smaller groups. I imagine that there is a limit to how long/how much turkey any person or family could eat.

Well, if your whole year has been geared towards producing 20+ lb birds for Thanksgiving you can't really change that in October. Selling more pieces separately, maybe, and more ground turkey? Or hoping to, anyway.