I have done enough of these birthdays, that I can allow for other, perhaps more pressing needs, desires and duties to nudge out the normal hoopla and most gladly not give in to the insanity of Black Friday. Now, let me see what is on my calendar for my birthday. First, I will need to rise at 5:45 AM. Is not this hour a bit late for the 'door buster' megastore duzzy? Perhaps, but I am not going anywhere near the lines of maniac insomniacs for a big screen TV, we are setting our coordinates for DFW airport. Grant, having spent a brief Thursday/Thanksgiving with us, has a 9:04 flight scheduled back to Laguardia. Happy Birthday Dad! and he is off to find the TSA line and we quickly say our good-byes, and pull away from the curb. Noting the low level of traffic at the airport on the busiest flying times of the year. It is a gift - a Black Friday Birthday gift for my personal enjoyment.
Sue offers to take me out for a birthday breakfast. I say, "Yo, I'm down with that", trying to sound younger than I really am, but immediately regret not acting my age. I'm looking for a senior discount with which I can get down with - or something like that. Anyway, Black Friday Birthday Breakfast sounds good to me. My choice is our favorite intimate brunch spot and it is on the way back from the airport, so I guide the car to Cafe Brazil. I have the classic breakfast, eggs over easy and with a half-dozen fruit-filled pan crepes in between the bacon and eggs.
After licking my fingers, we head home; but not to put on my party pants. No there are some needful things that we have opted to put higher on our priorities list this day, we will be paying an extended social call on our great friends in East Texas, Donna and Kirby McCord.
The McCords have just been pulled through a knothole. They were guest at our house at the end of October for their daughter Brianna's wedding in Dallas [cf A Wedding Inside of a Circus Wrapper in a Silver Lining blog]. During the business end of the wedding preparations, Donna's 94 year-old father fell from a fractured pelvis. Donna's family did not handle this crisis well, and a cloud of incrimination, high lunacy embossed with greed immediately ensued. Donna focused on the wedding, but was acutely aware that her father was in mortal decline. He father's life ebbed away on the Monday before Thanksgiving. Donna saw this as a blessing.
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| Kitchen Processors Donna, Sue & Brenda talk over the events of the week |
But to compound the loss and the misery back in the land of the living, her younger brother was observed by another motorist to pull off the highway and then collapse. The trailing motorist, a health professional, immediately began CPR. It was 20 minutes before the paramedics arrived to take him to the hospital. The news received by Donna was conflicting, but none of the details were good. Brother Gus was on a ventilator, but there was little or no brain activity. Gus' 19 year-old son was thrust into making critical medical decisions for his father in his mid-50's in the swirling toxic family atmosphere.  |
| Pomegranate Grabber Sue in the thick of the Harvest |
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| Donna reaps her fruit |
Knowing that our friends were overloaded with grief and anxiety in the middle of Thanksgiving, we joined with Brenda to go out to rally around the McCords and prepare a holiday meal for them all. Besides, Donna could use some expert help with the annual pomegranate harvest on their estate.
Out at the McCords, it was a setting where the autumn oaks were golden and the weather was crisp and the fellowship around the kitchen counter and dining tables was restorative. It was definitely a worthy Black Friday with deep feelings and fine friends, we never once gave a thought to the inane retail acquisition excess happening back in the city.
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| Pomegranate Harvest laid out on Iron Stone |
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| Fallen Autumn Oak Leaves |
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| A Beaming Grove of Golden Oaks Catch the Autumnal Afternoon Light |
I am glad that my needed presence was well received, rather than needing to receiving my presents.
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