Thanksgiving drama

(RANT) We are now in the 8-12 inch range for snow, starting tomorrow morning at dawn.   Our commute home on Wednesday will be more than interesting at this point. Rick will bring me into work and then take the Tucson to his work. Sometimes we are allowed to leave work early when the weather is really bad. But if they let us out early tomorrow, I will still have to wait til Rick gets off work to come get me. I can go home with Bob to his house; it's in the same town where Rick works and he can pick me up there. We've done that before. I usually make omelets or something for us, then we watch a movie until Rick gets there. But it's the point of the thing.

We've already called the snowplow guy to come in Thursday morning, after it's over to do the driveway (after Rick and I had a horrid argument about it). The man has a bad back and he tweaked it out yet again. And he was just at the doctor for back and knee x-rays....what part of STOP does he not get? I don't want him outside trying to shovel 12 inches of bloody snow in our driveway; that's just stupid. He's 63 years old and still thinks he's 23. Honestly, I could just smack him up along side the head sometimes. Sorry, but I am royally peeved. That macho crap has got to stop. "Oh, but I'm fine!" "No, you're not! Stop it!"

Thanksgiving dinner will be on Friday because Rick's dad is already fretting himself silly over having to come down on Thursday in the snow. So we postponed dinner til Friday, mainly to appease him, not that he'll show up anyway. I'll be surprised if he does....he's just looking for an excuse to get out of it and now the weather gave it to him. And if he thinks I'm a caterer, he is sadly mistaken. 

The electrician was coming on Friday to help Rick with the shed wiring. Now, that has to be postponed, plus we'll now have to dig through the snow before we can dig the ditch for the wiring coming from the house because Rick never got the ditch done over the weekend.

I give up. I simply give up. I'm tired of dealing with the family drama with his dad and I'm already tired of the bloody weather. If I lived in  Buffalo, I think I'd just commit myself at this point.

And people wonder why I hate winter. And if one more person, just one more person, tells me that they're looking forward to snow, it's not going to be pretty.

Why, yes, I'm in one fine mood this morning! Thank you for listening.

ETA: AND I FORGOT MY BLOODY WALKING SHOES THIS MORNING, SO I CAN'T GO FOR A WALK TODAY! 

(/END of RANT)

I think you need a . Maybe you'll luck out and the (heavy) snow won't materialize.

:grphug: More hugs. Hope things ease up a bit for you.

Wow Pam, you're certainly getting a lot of snow already.  I hope as someone else said, you won't get nearly as much as predicted.  We are supposed to get snow also but don't know how much yet.  I'm not even looking forward to flakes.

Thank you, guys. We're going from 8-12 down to 5-7, back and forth depending on who you want to believe. Our local weatherweenies have been saying all along that it should change over to freezing rain by mid-afternoon with a high above freezing eventually, thereby cutting down the overall amounts to 2-4 inches. That would be fine with me, but I don't know who to believe at this point. Everybody is saying something different. 

I wouldn't care (well, we can get an inch and I'd care), but if it wasn't for the holiday, it wouldn't be as bad. And if I didn't have to deal with Rick's dad and all his crap I'd be in a much better mood.

Sorry your having to deal with this Pam. . Sending some good vibes your way...

Sooooo sorry!  Between the weather and the family stuff, it sure can take the fun out of a holiday!  

sending   

i've mentioned that i'll be buying a used UTV next spring. one of the things i'll be buying is a plow to attach to the UTV, for plowing snow. i'm only 52 now, but i see the time approaching when i shouldn't be pushing myself and could be hurting myself by shoveling snow. so i'm planning ahead. an older couple a few houses up from me have a plow attachment for their lawn tractor/rider lawn mower, and they use that to clear the snow from their driveway each winter. i also figure that even if i'm able to shovel the snow now, why wear myself out and spend all that time shoveling snow? i have other things i'll have time to do if i don't have to shovel the snow.

Any way to cancel Thanksgiving dinner for everyone except you and Rick? Blame the weather, say the risk for them to travel isn't worth a dinner. Then, have a nice calm meal with your husband, no stress, just the two of you and maybe some wine involved. 

Seriously, that's what I would do. Forget everyone else and make it a nice time for you. I'd cancel the wiring for the shed, no shoveling, say to heck with it all for the weekend. Spend the time with your kitties - you have enough food if you get s**wbound, let the weather do what it wants, reclaim your weekend and holiday.   

Pam, you definitely need to move down here to Florida! No snow, no problems. And we'd love to have you as neighbors.

We're just having a quiet dinner for the two of us. We've gone to my nephew's the last couple of years, but since he is now divorced he doesn't know whether he'll have the kids or not. also., Scott makes dinner late, and at this point in our lives Paul just does not care to drive an hour for a late dinner and come home in the dark. We're in a rural area here, so driving at this point in our lives is a little more tricky. Hate to admit to "age" problems, but I guess it's true. I don't think Scott really understands how we feel about driving in the dark, and I guess he's n ot being completely sympathetic. Maybe he'll understand when he gets older. anyway, I know Paul is annoyed at him, but I try to downplay the situation. We have such a small family, I hate to look for problems and issues.

Anyway, the turkey is defrosting and it'll be just us and the kitties.

mickNsnicks2mom said:

 
sending 

 

i've mentioned that i'll be buying a used UTV next spring. one of the things i'll be buying is a plow to attach to the UTV, for plowing snow. i'm only 52 now, but i see the time approaching when i shouldn't be pushing myself and could be hurting myself by shoveling snow. so i'm planning ahead. an older couple a few houses up from me have a plow attachment for their lawn tractor/rider lawn mower, and they use that to clear the snow from their driveway each winter. i also figure that even if i'm able to shovel the snow now, why wear myself out and spend all that time shoveling snow? i have other things i'll have time to do if i don't have to shovel the snow.

Click to expand...

My DH wants one of those for our driveway.  Our driveway isn't paved so regular snow blowers aren't always appropraite for it I guess.  He usually just shovels out his car and so I can get out of the garage; then he does a one car width path down the driveway.  

MoochNNoodles said:

 
My DH wants one of those for our driveway.  Our driveway isn't paved so regular snow blowers aren't always appropraite for it I guess.  He usually just shovels out his car and so I can get out of the garage; then he does a one car width path down the driveway.  

Click to expand...

a plow attachment? my driveway is gravel, not paved either. i had been planning on buying a snow blower, but since i'll have the UTV i figured it would be easier and less expensive to simply buy a plow attachment. and i can sit and drive the UTV while letting the plow do the work of snow removal.

i've been shoveling the whole driveway and entrances to my house for several years now. heck, i'll even go shovel some of my neighbors driveways occasionally -- especially those who are older or disabled. i don't mind shoveling the snow, but it takes hours to clear my driveway and entrances many times. and i've also always got firewood to move, so i'm always open to ways that make these kind of jobs get done faster.

my neighbor with the rider lawn mower with the plow attachment simply plows the snow straight down his driveway, and across the road, and leaves it there. we live in a rural area, so there's plenty of open spaces to move snow to. i don't know if my neighbor needs weights to offset the weight of the plow attachment for his rider mower. i've read somewhere that weights are needed.

Thank you everybody. I'm fine, peeved, but fine. More so at Rick's father than at the weather, I think. We are now in the 4-8 range (everybody is saying that amount), so that's not too bad. Rick is taking me into work tomorrow and will bring me home in the afternoon.

Dinner is on Friday. Now, I think we are down to 8 (from 22!) because some don't want to give up their Black Friday shopping. My sister is going to have her own dinner now on Thursday with her family and that's OK, too. Her MIL has dementia and she insists on having turkey on Thanksgiving. It must be Thanksgiving, not Friday. My sister is making a small turkey dinner to keep her MIL happy. She's not amused because she wasn't planning on cooking. 

It is what it is at this point. Eight is OK. We don't know if his dad will come or not. But if he doesn't, I am not taking dinner to him. He is not an invalid (it would be different if he was) and he can come down. If he chooses not to, it's not my problem and I will not enable him.

Dinner for Rick and me on Thanksgiving is meatloaf. Sauteed green beans. No dessert as we'll be saving up for Friday. 

We've talked about buying some kind of used UTV, too. Our driveway isn't really long, but it is up a hill and it's really getting to be a pain to try to shovel. I've done it by myself when Rick has been in Oregon and we've had bad snowstorms in February; I just take my time. It pretty much takes me all day to get it all done because I don't do it all at one time. But I manage. We'll have to wait and see just how much we do get. The snow plow guy is on notice. More than six and he'll come in. We have a riding mower, but yes, we need weights to deal with a plow on it. And it isn't a big mower, just a small John Deere.

The first year our son was married, we got hit with a blizzard on Christmas Day. Son didn't make it up for Christmas and that was my first Christmas without him ever. And we lost power, so we had to cook Christmas dinner on the grill outside. We survived that and Rick and I have fond memories of it now. I'm sure we will with our Thanksgiving, too. (I'm still serving wine!)

Lana, in the winter, south Florida isn't even south enough! Belize. I'm telling you. Belize.   

Pam, we've been to Belize on a cruise and it is great. I have two tee-shirts from Belize that I practically live in for hanging around the house. But SW Florida is great, too. By the way, it's supposed to be 47 degrees here on Thanksgiving morning - that's not so great, but better than snow.

Let's talk one of these days - it's been too long. Maybe I'll give you a call on thanksgiving. Hey - meat loaf sounds great, I love it. i make it with a hard-boiled egg in the middle of the meat. It's something mymother used to do, and so did my late sister-in-law.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Maybe you should come over here at this time of year, @Winchester   - Live in perpetual Summer.

Wishing you warmth and a wonderful Thanksgiving..

I should, Mani!   

OK, here's what we're doing. Rick did bring me into work this morning. Not doing anything yet, but the rain is coming. Starting off with a mix, then changing over to all snow this afternoon into tonight. Now we're down to 4-6, thank goodness, largely, I think, because it's starting out as a mix. We are above freezing right now.

On Thursday, we are having the meatloaf. I will do all my food prep (casseroles and desserts, everything I can think of) on Thursday, so that we can get up early on Black Friday for a bit of shopping. PetSmart is on my list for the 39-cent Friskies Buffet and the 35-pound tubs of Tidy Cat for $7.99. 200 cans of cat food and 5 tubs. Then I'm good. Coming back home and will get Mr. Turkey into the Nesco by 11:00 a.m. for roasting. Rick and the electrician are going to Lowes to buy the electrical supplies, but that's it. We'll get the actual work done when we can.

Thanksgiving dinner is at 4:00. Late enough for me not to be rushing around, early enough that Rick's parents can get home safely enough to suit his dad. Rick will go up and pick them up around 3:00 and they should be back home by 6:00. And then Rick and I are going back out to shop. Just because.

Now, my biggest concern is: Can I pull off making a decent "chocolate mirror" for the top of the Black Forest Cheesecake???? I have a feeling that this cheesecake is going to be kicking me in the back of the pants! 

I have to ask what a chocolate mirror for the top of the cheesecake is? :lol3: I made a brownie cheesecake yesterday that I need to put chocolate ganache on today.

I'm sorry your Thanksgiving got interrupted, Pam.

The rain is just starting here and we are in the 1-3 inch range currently.

Started snowing around 8:00; everything is already white.

A chocolate mirror is a really shiny chocolate glaze. I don't do glazes well at all. I can do the glaze, but when pouring it over the cake, cheesecake, whatever, I always end up using too much and it doesn't run down over the cake the way I always see it done in pictures. You know how it always looks so pretty in the pictures that people post? Not so much here. I can't do it.

The cheesecake has a chocolate spongecake crust instead of graham cracker. It's really rich with chocolate and cherries. Then the chocolate mirror poured over top the cooled cheesecake. Decorated with whipped cream, chocolate shavings, and cherries. Not my thing at all, except for the chocolate. I don't like cheesecake and I don't like cherry much either. But everybody else does.

I think we are going to miss it this time.  We got 3 to 5 inches last time but the most we are supposed to get this time is a flurry.  It has cooled off but it isn't supposed to get down to single digits like it did the last time.

Just pack everything up and bring it up. Clear and sunny with a smidgen of snow late Thursday night.

You have to put the ganache on in two stages. Put the cake in the fridge so that it's cold. Pour a base layer of ganache. Put cake back in fridge so that it gets cold again and the ganache gets harder. Then pour the rest of the ganache over the cake, very slowly so that you can control how much drips down the sides.