hewn

the cool morning air is blowing in the driver's side window and the dog is wheezing in the back seat. we are listening to the magnetic fields and you like it, you're asking me all kinds of questions.

we talk about what a great morning it is and how we're going to have a great day regardless of who gets stressed out. i always know i can count on you to echo exactly what i'm thinking.

when we get out at the park - howard "gumpy" moore - i am glad i have my camera and my tea, too, even if i am wearing these ridiculous green shorts. i look around at the plants - last time i was here i made some collections - but they're all sleeping now; it's that time of year.

we counted the tree's rings and came to somewhere around 45 or 50, an old tree cut down for what reason we couldn't establish. what sounds like a gunshot rings out from somewhere nearby. we share an odd look of surprise but we keep walking. you never know about this place some time.

when we come home things will speed up and we won't be able to recapture this slow morning, the kind we both like the best, where you are really appreciating who you are with and the world you are in. when we leave here there will be turkey for everyone else and the stuffed acorn squash for me, there will be a drive to the airport to get my third mother, my aunt cindy, and i will listen to my grandfather reminisce about wyoming. there will be me and you, barefoot in the kitchen, blasting M83. there will be a lot of dishes and later we will eat, and wash more dishes, and then we will both retire, a little exhausted, a little of this, a little of that.

before that though: we are almost home and i ask you how long you and dad dated before you got married. and for the first time i really hear about that, i hear about when he proposed and i feel a closeness in these things i have wanted to ask but for some reason never did. i always thought you had a dedication, a drive, and i think that's where i get it. you don't give up on people (or things) and i like that. i like that and i'm that way too.

happy thanksgiving. i have more to be thankful for than i can enumerate here. i am more thankful for people than things (though i am lucky in that regard as well), so thank you:

mom, dad, mama, big daddy, cindy, gran, grandad, connor, leah, brian, jessica, megan, keith, taylor, deva, sam, becca, julie, erin, patty, tiana, kerri, evan, andrew, michael, mel, kelly, peter, alan, to friends, family, and everyone in between. far and away, you are what i am thankful for.