Thanksgiving break--a few days of peace

Back in Portland after a holiday vacay. Had the ritual turkey with friends and family in San Diego, then went to Tucson to visit family members who couldn't make the SD gathering. Saw a lot of folks whom I hadn't seen since last year. We caught up on recent stuff, played a lot of card and board games, and stuffed our faces. For the nth time, we all wondered, why do we cook a turkey only twice a year? Why not more often? 

The second turkey, or Turkey II as I called it, was enhanced by mole sauce. My god, was that good. When in Tucson, do as the Tucsonians do. The city is basically half Mexican and half American, so the food is out of this world. And as a university town, it has all sorts of cultural events all year. The physical setting is beautiful (unlike Phoenix--bleaaah), and the people are really cool. The city kind of flies under everyone's radar, though there's over half a million people.

We did of course discuss current events. We're all flaming liberals to a greater or lesser degree, and we didn't have the usual Uncle Fred from Bumfuck, Kansas getting drunk and loudly procaliming his love for Trump at the dinner table and every other chance he got. I'm sure that many of you had to cope with that sort of shit. We were, perhaps surprisingly, cautiously optimistic. Our consensus is that Trump is going to crash and burn, and if he actually gors through with his tariff and deportation plans and isn't bluffing, he'll tank the economy and everyone will blame him for it, though of course he'll try to blame Biden or Obama or Abraham Lincoln. Then we'll get another blue wave in 2026. Anyway, that's what we're expecting and hoping.

In the meantime, we all live in safely liberal enclaves (that includes Tucson), so we don't expect raids by Trump's Gestapo anytime soon. We're going to just lean back and watch as everything goes to hell. We're going to see how popular Elon's 30 percent across the board reductions will be with Medicare and Social Security recipients. We're going to laugh as corporations that will be utterly fucked over by Trump's plans approach him on bended knee for exemptions (remember the soybean farmers?). 

It's good to see family and friends when they're normally 1000 miles away, and we had good weather for travel, unlike much of the rest of the country. We did indeed have lots to be thankful for. I hope all of you did as well.

Nice random trip report, sounds like fun.

"Random"? Anyway, no gambling was involved, and Vegas definitely wasn't, so I put it here rather than in the Trip Reports forum.

It really was fun, as most Thanksgiving gatherings are, even the pro forma ones where everybody has to gather at Uncle Fred's house every year, struggling to get there through a snowstorm, even if they can't stand him :) But this was a completely voluntary event. 

We did want to kind of go to town this time around, as both food and travel will be MUCH more expensive from now on, perhaps to the point of being prohibitive for some of us. We may not get that $150 turkey that had to be imported from Bangladesh because all the farmers got chased out of the country.

Sounds like you had a good time, enjoyed family and ate some good food.  Excellent trip!

Yeah, thanks. Kind of the last hurrah, as Trumpflation will slaughter our ability to have these kind of gatherings in the future. Hell, we may have eaten our last pumpkin pie. (I prefer mince, anyway.)

I'm sure that MAGA families around the country also had joyous celebrations, ending with circle jerks around the table to the tune of "Proud To Be a MAGA Moron," or whatever that song by Lee Greenwood is called (Mister One-Hit Wonder). Good for them! People raised toasts to Der Fuhrer in cities all over Germany...in 1933. In 1945, not so much.

There was certainly a sense of poignancy, in that this very well may have been our last Thanksgiving, after our last election. There may not be another of either of those things. But we'll get by. And of course, if things really do go to Trump Hell, we'll all need each other more than ever, so this was an opportunity to solidify the bonds that may ultimately be the keys to our survival. 

The last expectation you all had was Trump was going to get trounced by Kamala too.........oops.....

Frankly, I'm sick of turkey. 70 years of it is enough. My better half and I eat burgers ,ham, or pizza on Thanksgiving on purpose. Funny in that traditional things generally are appealing, but not the tryptophan birds anymore. Ain't America great?

Is it a coincidence that kevin was gone for 7 days (wasn't it peaceful) or the equivalent of yet another AC time out for kevin.

I think its likely he did have a nice dinner in Tucson but the extra 6 days were working the rest areas between Tucson and Portland on his drive back.

You just can't quit indulging in homoerotic fantasies can you?

Maybe you should try the conversation therapy that conservatives are always hyping.