24 November 2009

When Giving Thanks is Not Enough

As we move slowly into the holiday season I expect to be ruminating to some extent over the significance of Yuletide, and perhaps to be taking potshots at some of the seasonal inanities. For the moment, however, it’s still this side of Thanksgiving, the harvest festival the pilgrims stole from the Iroquois, and my mind is at least somewhat free for other sorts of meditations.

This was the year we picked, for whatever reason, to have Thanksgiving here again, in spite of being less than halfway through remodeling, and having a house filled with many and varied inconveniences. We actually had things halfway pulled together, at least till today. I've never got through a Thanksgiving without something blowing up, and this one turns out to be no exception. With out-of-town guests starting to arrive already, and the feast-in-embryo filling our refrigerators to overflowing, the plumbing under the sink picked today of all days to explode. Well, we managed to get that hacked together with a temporary fix, and I was just on the point of congratulating myself on getting through another holiday disaster unscathed, when the real disaster happened.

A mysterious hole opened up in the yard, and that turned out to be where sewage was escaping from a hole in the underground pipe that ought to be carrying it. Investigation showed that the bend that should have been directing the waste out to the sewer had shattered somehow—it looked as though it had been made of some sort of ceramic—and we had a really disgusting mess on our hands. And to make things really charming, while my nephew Brandon was out excavating the pipe, someone who shall remain nameless forgot and flushed the downstairs toilet, bringing the fury of Brandon down upon us all with a vengeance, and we now have to replace the downstairs toilet as well as repair the goddamn sewer line. So all in all Thanksgiving is off to a roaring start, and I'm thinking of heading to the hills till it’s over. We’ll see, though. It could be entertaining. Always assuming that I can stand the pressure of being around people.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dare I say, "Happy Thanksgiving" all the same? Hope it all goes much better from here on in ... rfh

Anonymous said...

It is very interesting for me to read this article. Thanx for it. I like such topics and anything that is connected to this matter. I definitely want to read a bit more on that blog soon.

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