Back home again

Thanksgiving break is far too short for those of us with some distance to travel. (But I think staying home - and I'm far too independent/not-wanting-to-be-a-bother to at all hint to any of my friends or colleagues that I'd want an invitation to dinner....I'd probably wind up making soup or something and just staying home and watching old movies).

But I do continue to travel, even though the break is too short, because I keep in mind a comment from someone I know who recently lost her parents: you will never regret the time you take to spend with them.

The trip up was pleasant and uneventful. It was Thelma and Chris (he of the "My Lady" way of referring to women that I like so much) in the dining car, the young woman (Janice) who was the sleeper car attendant was good and on-the-ball, even if they had her running between the fore and aft sleepers (They have a sleeper on the front of the train - often it's a half-sleeper, half-crew-dorm car, and they have a sleeper on the back of the train. I think that's to make it easier to remove cars at the terminus or at waypoints along the way).

(Coming back, it was a crew I wasn't familiar with, and things didn't go quite so smoothly...or at least, the people running the diner seemed unusually harried and short with people. My usual way of dealing with this is to get quiet and uber-pleasant and to try to kill them with kindness. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but getting snappish with people who already seem overwhelmed only makes stuff worse).

While up at my parents, we tried to put the outdoor lights out. And another frustration: the "net lights," as convenient as they may be for some things, they seem to be VERY poorly made. We had several sets bought only last year where only 1/3 of the set would light - and it was all in the same section, so I think it was a wiring thing and not a bulb thing. Very frustrating. They did run out to the hardware and buy new "better" (we shall see) sets. But I suggested boycotting outdoor decorations until some better quality ones could be found (though I don't know how you'd evaluate that). But that's one thing that frustrates me- cheaply made stuff that breaks or wears out long before its time. (The tree lights of my own I replaced this year, I had used for some 15 years before. And I suspect if I had felt up to playing with fuses and checking all the bulbs, they might still have worked, I don't know.

Next year, I am going to suggest LED lights as a replacement; they seem to have longer life for applications like this. And they draw far less power).

Though I suppose cheaply-made stuff that wears out fast is kind of the order of the day, now, and you have to go to really specialty places (and pay a lot more) for stuff you're not sending to the landfill the next year.

We didn't do the Friday shopping thing (the lights were bought Saturday morning) except for a trip to the small local gourmet shop. It was busy, but not hectic or crazy and all the shoppers were courteous to one another. (I bought a tomten for my mantel - they had a bunch of Swedish Christmas decorations - and a bag of those Balsen iced pfeffernusse that I like so much.)

I did finish the hat for my sister-in-law so I think my shopping is pretty well done, other than ordering "family gifts" for each set of uncles (I usually do some kind of food item; I'm thinking of doing Aplets and Cotlets again this year).

And then I came back, through lots of rain (it rained most of the night as I was on the train) and then drove home, got groceries, and then came home and put everything away, washed my hair, wrote an exam for next week and did a bit of leftover grading. And I'm going to go to bed early. I'm getting better at sleeping on the train (considering the extra I pay for a compartment, I HOPE I manage to sleep), but it's still not as comfortable as in bed. I think part of the issue is I am a "flop out" sleeper who likes to stretch out my arms and legs and take up a lot of room, and there's not that much space in the little railroad berths to do that.(I have similar issues with sleeping bags - I don't like the confined feeling - which is just another reason I'm not big on camping.)