Top Ten of the Week: November 19, 2017
HERE BELOW is the top ten of this week, starting November 19, the year of our Lord 2017.
Turkey
Gobble gobble gobble! Look out above, in flies the turkey and just in time for Thanksgiving. My favorite holiday tradition when I was young was waking up on that special Thursday morning to see what gifts the Thanksgiving Turkey brought our family that year. Turkey is a wonderful food that, when cooked right, tastes good. There are many different types of nourishment the turkey provides. If you aren’t careful though, that full belly of turkey could put you down for the count pretty quick! That magical component that science can’t explain? Turkey makes you fall asleep.
Ice Fishing
I wasn’t able to write last week because I was away on an ice fishing trip on Herb Lake in beautiful Manitoba. I had never been ice fishing before, and I didn’t know what to expect. I was always under the impression that ice fishing was actually going to the market and finding a beautiful filet to take home and cook, but boy was I wrong! It turns out ice fishing is actually fishing, and on a frozen lake of ice to boot. You spend all day fishing through a little hole in the ice, and hope to catch a bite. I only caught one big honkin fish, but I still had fun regardless. I asked Luke many times if he wanted to come, but he said he had plans. I’d very much like to take a vacation with him some day.
Wine
My recent tour of the vineyards of eastern Bulgaria has shown me how much I actually enjoy wine, and it’s more than I had previously thought. Most people don’t know that wine is made from stepping on grapes in a large wooden tub. I hope you’ve got those clean feet, because I don’t want anything funky sitting in my large-stemmed glass. From red to white and in between, wine is becoming more and more popular by folks young and old. There’s nothing like a fine meal or evening capped off with a glass, and I think you would agree with me if you got your nose into the good stuff, too. Gloria always enjoyed a nice glass of wine after a long day. Can’t believe I forgot about that.
Washing Machine
Listen, I don’t want to speak for anyone else, but don’t you just hate it when you’re wearing clothes and ~BAM~, you spill a glob of cream of mushroom soup on your pants. Ugh! Now I have to take my pants off and have them cleaned, because I don’t want the mushroom stain to set in. Until yesterday, I hand-cleaned my clothes and wrung them out in my family’s most prized possession, an antique clothing wringer, passed down from generations since 1674. It was time consuming and I would always make such a mess in my bathroom. But friends, not any more. There is a new hot invention on the market, and it’s the clothes washer. You just plug it in, type in the settings you want, and the machine does the work for you! No more hassle of scrubbing your clothes with a soap and brush. When the machine is finished, it provides you with newly cleaned clothes. It’s so interesting and effective that I have no need for that old hunk of junk anymore. I burned it this morning.
Yardwork
If there’s one thing my beloved father has taught me, it’s the value of hard work. I’m talking, roll up your sleeves and get down and dirty! Us Budapi are a family built upon generations of laborers and drifters, and a hard-earned work day is just in my bones. That’s why fall yardwork is a great. Whether it’s raking leaves, cleaning out the gutter of leaves, burning leaves, or cutting down trees, I just love it all. I gather my children around and put them to the task as well. I can help harden their character and regale them of stories of yard work from when I was a child. My family has never been closer than when we’re doing yard work together. Haha, occasionally after raking a large pile of leaves, Gloria would jump at me and we’d both fall in, right into the pile of leaves. Those were some good times.
Family Dinner
As I’ve touched on, American Thanksgiving is right around the corner. One of the main parts of the holiday is the grand family dinner. A family dinner is a great way to get your favorite group of relatives together to enjoy each other’s company. Some will even maybe discuss the hot topics of the day, which can be quite taboo. Oh man, one year Gloria spent an hour discussing how “overblown” child labor laws were. We may have had our disagreements, but a fire like that always made me admire her.
A Kindled Fire
Speaking of fire, a great way to ease into Thanksgiving eve is to light a fire in a fireplace and enjoy the comfort of the flames with your loved ones. What better way to follow up constructive current event dinner conversation than to from a close group around a warm, searing flame? Watch out though, that fire can get hot! After the dinner, Glo had a little too much mulled wine and threatened to douse me in boiling water from the tea I was preparing. Things…changed between us after that.
Spare Change
While I’m reflecting on the change my life has experienced, I just remembered how wonderful spare change is. Have you ever gone to the store and bought something? For me, the cost sometimes includes an amount that isn’t quite a whole dollar. In those instances it’s always great to have spare change on you. But maybe not too much change. Like the rift between Gloria and I. Did things have to happen the way they did? Did our relationship have to change? Sometimes I can’t get over how we ended up. I know she has a new, younger Norwegian lover, Pølsen, but why can’t it be old Sinclair again? Oh my god, it’s all coming back to me. I…I miss her so much.
Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving!
