Ah, what an eventful holiday! Terrorism in India. Black Friday violence. And family fun at the Turkey Day feast. Yep, I had Thanksgiving Dinner with my parents, my sister and my 16 year-old niece — What fun!
My Dad started out the day complaining about the cable TV. He’s always threatening to get rid of the cable and get DirectTV and, when his TV suddenly went snowy, he started again yelling, “This goddamn cable . . . I’m gonna call them people up and have’em take it out . . . that directv is supposed to be better anyhow . . .”
Well, I don’t know if directtv is better or cheaper, but I’m looking at his TV screen and I’m thinking maybe it’s not the cable this time. My father is going blind (macular degeneration) and has a habit of accidentally hitting the wrong button on the remote and turning off the cable box, so I said, “Here gimme the remote.” He hands it to me and sure enough, that’s what he did. Football restored. This actually made him angrier than if it had been a problem with the cable.
At dinner, my mother started her annual gripe-fest about having to cook Thanksgiving Dinner (even though she got one of those prepared dinners from the supermarket and didn’t have to do much except heat it up). My niece was in her usual bratty mood, bitching about lord knows what and my sister starts yelling at her and they get into it. Then I get involved because I just want to enjoy the meal in peace. Then my father (who’s still stewing over the mishap with the cable-box) enters, mumbling about the cable company and DirectTV and starts yelling at all of us because he most definitely wants to eat in peace and quiet. So everybody’s shouting and stuffing their faces. Ha ha. . . good times!
Anyway, I hope everyone else had a nice holiday. Tomorrow I’ll get back to working on a new issue of Gnome, among other things. I’m currently reading submissions for that issue as well as for the next two issue of The 13th Warrior Review if anyone is interested.
