[Gathnet] Pre-Thanksgiving

[Jonathan Gathman]

Greetings, Gathnetters,
   I hope you all enjoyed the double blessings of giving thanks to God 
for His blessings this year.  True, there have been some hard times this 
year, for some more than others, but even for those, I trust that you 
all recognize God's hand to see us through.

   Jacqui and I haven't celebrated Thanksgiving yet.  I was scheduled to 
be "on-call" this week, so we couldn't head down to Jacqui's folks. 
Valerie, Jacqui's sister had to work on Thanksgiving itself (she's in a 
medical field), and Matt, Jacqui's sister couldn't be there on the 
Thanksgiving day either.

   Therefore, Jacqui's folks and Valerie are heading here, and should be 
here anytime, for us to celebrate tomorrow.

   In the meantime, Jacqui's folks gave us the blessing of taking all 
the kids down to Springfield, to spend time with them, and Matt (who 
could spend pre-thanksgiving time).  This left Jacqui and I on our own 
for the last few days.  The first couple weren't too different, as I 
still had to work, so Jacqui did a number of pending jobs around the 
house.  But since getting off, we've been able to treat it as a second 
honeymoon.  We treated ourselves to a "Bed and Breakfast" style 
breakfast, with full good china in the dining room (overlooking our 
Bradford pear, which has turned a brilliant red).  Spent lots of time, 
walking, holding hands, and all those other newlywed things.  Silly you 
say?  Shameless?  Awww, you're just jealous...

   Still, we've got work done.  The current cooktop basically worked, 
but the fan sounded like a 747 revving up.  There was a grill instead of 
normal cooking elements, so she quickly found she couldn't use 1/2 th 
range, and no replacement parts were available, due to age.  Since 
Jacqui has always wanted a flat, ceramic cooktop, we decided that this 
would be an immediate improvement to the new place.  Our new cooktop 
came in a week and a hald ago, but with musical things every night, 
putting it in was not in the cards.  However, I put it in yesterday.  I 
couldn't finish it, because the power cord was 2 feet shorter than the 
original one, and I had to move the power box up to the cabinet.  Since 
everything was closed, we had to wait until this morning to get that 
cable, and buy the additional ducting necessary.  However, it's in, and 
Jacqui's quite pleased.

   I'm still looking for a tractor, though Uncle Steve (Burwell) gave me 
lots of excellent advice.  The musical season makes doing things quite 
awkward, performances are coming pretty quickly, though.

   Well, guess I should sign off.  Take care!

-- 
Jonathan Gathman
"Think, Speak and Do Well"
Urquhart Family Crest