Early Thanksgiving and Pet Stories!
When you are "too clever by half" like me you try to show off your intelligence and come off as annoying. Perhaps an early thanksgiving trip will come across to you as such. Last week, I took the family to my hometown of Suffolk to spend time with family. However, the timing of the trip was strategic. With a potential second-wave of Covid looming (tis the season...) I figured that we could take our normal family thanksgiving trip and move it up by two months. By all accounts it was a huge success! I would highly recommend it. (Except, the purpose is defeated if everyone does it... thankfully, my influence on the world is relatively small).
The trip was almost all "pros" and no "cons" For instance:
Pros:
No Holiday Traffic.
Still barely swimming weather.
No uncomfortable stuffing of yourself with food (assuming you don't also move up the thanksgiving meal).
But Options too! Maybe you like the thanksgiving meal-- now you get to have it twice a year!
The forecast for the week was grim and called for clouds and rain everyday. I am glad to report that the weather was much nicer than predicted. During the week I managed to get in 1 and 1/2 rounds of disc golf, a shrimping expedition, daily swimming in the pool, a secluded beach visit and multiple rounds of family table games. All alongside great family time.
I determined beforehand to ask my family some questions about stuff from their lives about how they grew up. One such question was about the first memories of pets. For my dad, it was a dog named "Jerry" (Name will be corrected if remembered wrongly). Sadly the main memory of Jerry was that my dad saw him hit by a school bus and was forced to euthanize the dog himself (a la "Old Yeller" (SPOILER ALERT)). My mom's story was only slightly less tragic. Her pet was a chick named Pee-Wee. She said the chick was very affectionate and would climb up on her. However, as the chick became a rooster and got to be more vocal, her dad put a swift end to Pee-Wee. Graced with other family we were able to hear other first pet stories as well. (Not all bad either). I cherish these moments.
In my opinion pets are a natural way for children to learn about life and death. Of course they have other value as well. I've never been much of a pet guy myself. We have a black lop-eared bunny at the moment. I look forward to him teaching the kids about death. (I kid.) His name is Sebastian and he has his moments. He can be fun and sweet or aloof and annoying.
To conclude: Feel free to take an early holiday and avoid the rush and the covid. Spend time with friends and family and ask them about their past. I don't know why it hasn't occurred to me until just recently. And never let fear of being "too clever by half" keep you from doing something smart.
