Colby weighs in on Canadian Thanksgiving; he notes Damian Penny's ferreting out of the origins of Canadian Thanksgiving. It was what we'd today call "an exercise in nation-building." (Even the date is stolen! Columbus Day coincides with Canadian Thanksgiving.)
We'll be celebrating Thanksgiving with my wife's family: in particular, her sister's family, her parents, and some of her dad's siblings. Sixteen altogether.
Colby also notes that Canadians take their thanksgivings easier than we Americans do; perhaps that because, with the $CAD being where it is, Canadians have less to feel thankful for....
Seriously, though, Thanksgiving is the big family holiday in the States. There's no hassling about inclusiveness, as the holiday has been scoured free of any religious connection. (Pilgrims? Fleeing persecution? What?!) Everyone celebrates Thanksgiving.
In LA, celebrities working off their community service convictions trundle down to the Hollywood homeless shelter, where there's a good chance Christian Slater will be serving up turkey and James Brown will be slingin' hash.
My favorite Thanksgiving in recent years was the one we celebrated in Santa Monica at Al's. He was my mom's neighbor in Santa Monica (he died earlier this year at 83), and a hell of a guy. He worked in the building trades in Los Angeles for probably all of his life, except for the time he spent in the Army in World War II. Men like him literally built LA.
That year, Al had a big picture of a nervous-looking turkey up in his living-room window. The turkey was holding a big sign that said "This year, try a ham!" I never figured that one out, as Al was Jewish... maybe his grandkids put him up to it.
Went running this morning. I almost didn't, because my exercise partner cancelled at the last minute (actually, 7:40 this morning). So I wasted some time and read my blogs until I decided that I really did want to go running today. Especially since I blew off Thursday (being sick) and didn't catch up on Friday (still being sick).
So I went out on my own. My knee is feeling better these days. I think I have the pain traced to running on the outside of the sidewalk: this means that I spend some time running on the horizontal inclines of driveways. My partner runs on the insides and therefore on the flatter parts of the driveways.
There was snow left over from the last two days, but it'll probably be gone by this afternoon. It stuck pretty well, especially on north lawns and in the shade of evergreens, but today is bright and clear, and the sun is already warming the roads. There's a little bit of black ice; that is, very thin but hard patches of ice. Black ice is slippery and very hard to see. I managed to avoid most of it; I didn't take any spills, anyway.
I had a chance to time myself today. I would characterize my running pace as 'a slow jog', and that is in fact what it is. I am making 7' 20" to the kilometer. That's not suitable for a marathon; to complete a marathon in under five hours, you need to maintain an average pace of 7' 8" per kilometer or faster. I didn't expect to be very fast this early in the training, but it's disappointing nonetheless. I once ran a mile in the time it now takes me to run a kilometer.
More later, I hope. I've taken the last two days off for my cold, but I hope to catch up on everything (house cleaning, work, blogging -- maybe even brewing?) this holiday weekend. (It's Canadian Thanksgiving.)