When I go into the gym at work in the morning, I often run into the same set of people heading out to participate in their physical training routine. I am on cordial speaking terms with a few of these folks, and one of these guys happens to be someone that I exchange greetings with in the cold dark mornings on a fairly regular basis. He says something like, "Hey, what's up man?," and then I say, "Not much. How's it going." At this point in the conversation he always, and I mean ALWAYS says, "Today is the best day of my life!"
Day after day, he acknowledges that the past is the past, the future is not guaranteed, and today, this very moment, is the best day and moment of his entire life. He's a man that seems familiar with gratitude. He doesn't wait for that one special day of the year where most folks in this country focus on thankfulness. In keeping with the fine example that I think he's setting, today is the best day of my life. If I'm fortunate enough to make it to tomorrow, that too will be the best day of my life, and so, if I'm disciplined and observant, I can stumble through life with a series of days that just keep getting better than the last.
On the walking front, I took a bit of a breather today and only put in a little over nine miles. About five of those miles was actually a bit of a jog because I was afforded the opportunity to participate in the Fleet Feet Annapolis Turkey Trot 5K fun run at 0900 this morning. Going to this little jog was a total surprise, and a good one once I got over the shock of my roommates basically insisting that we participate as a group. I'd mentioned this event several weeks ago, but my impression was that they're level of interest was somewhere between apathetic and mildly antagonistic to the notion. It came as quite a shock when I got a text asking if we were going to participate. It had seemed like a good idea several weeks ago, and it seemed like a good idea today so we went.
On the way over to the run, I crossed Spa Creek and managed to snap a photo that captures the still, sunny, mildly crisp fall day that hosted the run. While there's really no such thing as bad weather, there is such a thing as good weather. It's one of the many paradoxes that I've encountered walking. Today was decidedly good weather.
I'm pretty well acquainted with the owners of Fleet Feet Annapolis who hosted this event, and they claim that they believe they could have had as many as three thousand people participating in this run today. They base that on about 1800 RSVPs and the assumption that most of the folks who come bring one or two family members to participate. While I'm forced to admit this was my M.O., and the crowd was pretty big, I do have some skepticism that we topped the tree millenia mark. The overall number matters very little since there was a large and fun loving crowd that turned out to run on Thanksgiving morning. The event was quite a bit of fun and struck the right mark in rounding out the final five miles of my pedestrian activity this morning
Deep frying a turkey or a ham is a serious (and potentially dangerous) undertaking, but the results are predictable, easy to achieve, and absolutely fabulous from both a preparation time and taste perspective. One of the chief advantages to this method of cooking the main course is it decouples the cooking of the main course from the kitchen activities. This is an especially welcome state of affairs when you only have one oven. The downside is that you're dealing with three hundred fifty degree peanut oil that is always looking for a way to progress from relatively energetic cooking activities to a flashover fire that might just burn your house, your yard, and your back porch down.
Day after day, he acknowledges that the past is the past, the future is not guaranteed, and today, this very moment, is the best day and moment of his entire life. He's a man that seems familiar with gratitude. He doesn't wait for that one special day of the year where most folks in this country focus on thankfulness. In keeping with the fine example that I think he's setting, today is the best day of my life. If I'm fortunate enough to make it to tomorrow, that too will be the best day of my life, and so, if I'm disciplined and observant, I can stumble through life with a series of days that just keep getting better than the last.
On the walking front, I took a bit of a breather today and only put in a little over nine miles. About five of those miles was actually a bit of a jog because I was afforded the opportunity to participate in the Fleet Feet Annapolis Turkey Trot 5K fun run at 0900 this morning. Going to this little jog was a total surprise, and a good one once I got over the shock of my roommates basically insisting that we participate as a group. I'd mentioned this event several weeks ago, but my impression was that they're level of interest was somewhere between apathetic and mildly antagonistic to the notion. It came as quite a shock when I got a text asking if we were going to participate. It had seemed like a good idea several weeks ago, and it seemed like a good idea today so we went.
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| Spa Creek with St. Mary's Church to the Right |
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| The gathering Turkey Trot crowd early (but not too early) Thanksgiving morning |
After wrapping up the fun run, it was time to get down to serious business in preparing the Thanksgiving dinner for the evening. Including my roommates, we hosted a meal for ten people. We, of course went overboard a little and prepared twelve dishes for ten people to enjoy. I made a spirited defense of curtailing our excess a little, but ended being unsuccessful in this effort. I won't bore you with the details of mashed potatoes, green beans, peas, Brussel sprouts, glazed carrots, stuffing, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie.
apple pie, cherry pie, and gravy. I will tell you that the two main courses were deep fried turkey and deep fried ham.
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| Moderately Dangerous Cooking |
Tieing it all back to the proper example set by my gym acquaintance, this was the best day of my life. I'm grateful for it and all that it brought my way, and I'm looking forward to having another great day tomorrow...no matter what the future holds. Happy Thanksgiving - 2015.
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