I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, if you celebrated. I usually spend this holiday with my aunt and uncle, on a peninsula across Elliot Bay that I have to take a ferry to get to. It’s one of my favorite things to do each year, starting the day before – grab a Chestnut Praline Latte from Starbucks on my way to the docks in downtown Seattle, position myself in a good spot to get my choice of seats with the walk-on crowd, and settle down on a cushy bench seat to watch the view of the water and land as we slowly make our way into Bremerton.
It’s a great view, depending on the weather, and the low hum of the ferry’s engines is a pleasurable constant, even below whatever music I’m in the mood for. It’s usually rainy and windy this time of year, so I don’t spend any time on the decks, but there’s always a cold rush of air from people going in and out. It’s an hour-long ride, so there’s always a book, a pre-downloaded Netflix episode, a half-finished ferry puzzle on the table… There’s no cell-phone connection in the middle of the water, so you have to be prepared to keep yourself amused during the ride. There’s always a few children running around, some families piled around a table, a number of singles with airplane tags on their rolling suitcases, and passengers with shopping bags from downtown Seattle’s line of high-priced stores, or smaller market vendors. It’s clear everyone is on their way home.
Once we’re moored, the walk-on passengers crowd around the doors to depart. The cold air is rough, and I usually wish I had better gloves. As we all walk quickly off the boat, we get sprinkled on by rain before being covered again by the slip ramp. Then it’s outside again to find our rides. I walk all the way to the end of the sidewalk. Usually, my aunt or uncle is waiting in their truck, or waiting in the Starbucks on the corner for me. I’m always carrying a bag of clothes, and some crafting supplies, as well as my purse. I like to be prepared, which makes it hard to pack light. lol. There’s always a few errands to run, then it’s home to relax for the night with a pizza.
The rest of my stay involves helping in the kitchen, eating too much, napping, and conversing with my cousins and their kids. My aunt and I always watch “Home for the Holidays”, spend some time crafting, and head out late on Friday to do some shopping at the craft stores. We also always bring a plate of food to my grandma, who’s now in an assisted living home.
I’m sad, this year, that due to COVID-19, I couldn’t go over there. I’m sad that none of us can go see Grandma. I know it was the best thing to do, both for them and me and my roommate, but with cases rising, I couldn’t even see people in my own bubble. Which would have been the first Thanksgiving I’d have with my bubble people in several years, since my uncle retired from the Navy, and I started going back over there, seeing as the rest of my family is in Alaska.
But I’m thankful for many things this year. Thankful that I was able to work through most of the year. Grateful for the opportunity that unemployment has given me to focus on my crafting and baking and sharing of these things. Grateful for the stability and privilege to be able to do so. Thankful that my friends and family are largely healthy, and I haven’t lost anyone to this horrible virus rampaging across the world. Grateful for my puppies
Despite missing all of this, I had a very pleasant Thanksgiving, just my roommate and our dogs and I. It was very chill, but not the same as other days my roommate and I are home at the same time, I think mostly because I was cooking for an occasion, and my roommate became investing in helping me fix my long-messed up laptop.
See, roughly a year ago, there was a power outage. My roommate wanted to hang a flashlight from the chandelier that hovers above our couch/coffee table. She had one foot on the coffee table, which was wobbly, and one on the edge of the couch. Unfortunately, her foot slid off the couch, and as she fell, her weight flipped the coffee table…on which my open laptop was sitting. >_< I made sure she was okay first, and then checked my laptop. It wasn’t physically broken, as far as I could tell. The screen was fine, the case was fine…but it wouldn’t boot Windows.
I tinkered around with it off and on for a while – but it was the busy season, and there wasn’t much time to work on it. I tried EVERY repair/recovery option available to me. And, nothing. So I set it aside for another time, and wound up using my super-old and slow Dell laptop, and my roommate let me borrow her newer Chromebook.
Recently, she started using her Chromebook to write, since her gaming laptop overheats easily (I have the same problem with my old Dell), and so I decided it was time to re-connect with this old thing and see if I could get it to work.
So re-tried a few of the options, just to make sure it really wasn’t working, and was stuck again. I tried some different commands in the command line prompt, but it wouldn’t really execute anything. I remembered I had an official copy of Windows 7, and thought maybe I could install Windows 7 from the disc, and then upgrade to 10. But I couldn’t get the computer to read the disc. I changed the boot order via BIOS, and was able to get it to load the disc, but it wouldn’t install with out a operating system, which the computer seemed to not have. At one point, I tried the custom install option, and tried to format the drives – but it still wouldn’t install. At a certain point, I started getting busy making all the sides for Thanksgiving dinner, so my roommate took over trying to troubleshoot. We realized we’d been asking the wrong question. It wasn’t, “How do I fix ‘Operating System Not Found’?” but it was “How do I install an operating system when the system won’t let me?” Turns out, the solution was to delete ALL of the partitions, build new ones, and install on one of those. So now my computer works again!
TL;DR is that my computer was not loading Windows, and my roommate poked around while I was making Thanksgiving dinner, and helped me fix it, because I was at a loss of what to do next!
Anyhow, dinner was delicious, and I have some really terrible photos to share with you (because I wasn’t planning on show you all what I ate, but here’s something).
I made roasted turkey breasts, carrots roasted in honey butter, dinner rolls from scratch, green bean casserole, stuffing, and turkey gravy and mashed potatoes. I used the butter left over from the carrots to baste the rolls I made. I also baked a Marie Callendar’s Razzleberry pie. I had already made those pumpkin pies a few weeks ago, which we still had a few slices left, and I honestly wanted to not go too crazy and make everything myself. lol. So I bought a ready-made frozen pie that I knew would be delicious and I wouldn’t have to spend too much time on.
I’ll also admit to not making the gravy or the potatoes. I knew I wasn’t going to get enough drippings to make the gravy from scratch (though, on hindsight, I might have had enough), and so I went with the packet stuff. I also realized, right as everything else was finished, that I forgot to boil the potatoes, so I resorted to quickly boiling water and milk for some potatoes out of a box. They’re probably less nutritious than fresh potatoes, but they do the trick in a pinch, and, they’re super-easy to make when I either can’t figure out what to eat, or don’t have a lot of time.
So, other than those little blips, I’m really happy with out dinner turned out. The puppies sure didn’t mind – they were under my heels all day, wondering where all the wonderful smells were coming from.
But now it’s on to cookie-baking season! I have a few recipes I’ll be sharing later this month, but right now, I’m working on making around 5 or 6 different types to send out to loved ones. I tend to make things to send to people in lieu of buying gifts – especially my older family members – they aren’t in need of more things most of the time. So I usually send some homemade treats and maybe a small gift. This year, it’s cookies and jam! Though my mom’s cat is getting a new toy I hope he’ll like.
Maybe it’s a combination of this tumultuous year and the season, but I find myself being particularly contemplative and introspective about how life and things are going. That’s probably why the beginning of this post has been more story-telling than instructive. But I’m a story-teller at heart, and miss writing, so perhaps that’s where this post came from. I’m also anticipating a hopefully delightful Yule. Even if my bubble people might not be able to come over.
What are you guys looking forward to most during this time of year?
Keep it crafty!
Raven
The Crafty Raven 