Thanksgiving thoughts

I’ve never had any interest in Thoreau — which can be hard when you can’t get away from him the next town over — but at least he picked a nice place to get away from it all at Walden Pond.

Suzi and I went there for a Thanksgiving walk this morning. The sun was bright, and while it was chilly, it wasn’t cold.

I felt strong, charging along the path like I had some pent-up energy to burn off, which I probably did.

We saw a decent amount of people for relatively early in the morning — mostly ones and twos, and once out on the trail, everyone pretty much had their own space to chat among themselves, enjoy the view of the pond or be contemplative.

There were even a handful of swimmers with their wetsuits and flotation devices. As we were finishing up, we heard a few of them talking water temperatures, but the 40s and 50s of their conversation were about 30 degrees less than I’m willing to contemplate.

Thanksgiving has taken on various forms over the years, from the large gatherings around long tables set lengthwise in the basement of my great-aunt and uncle’s house, to a restaurant with Suzi’s parents on the day itself followed by my parents’ on the weekend.

Last year, we saw Suzi’s parents on Tuesday, didn’t go to my parents’ at all — I got antsy over new travel restrictions instituted right before the holiday, in retrospect, probably needlessly — and had Thanksgiving dinner at Mix’s.

This year, we saw Suzi’s parents a couple weeks ago and are headed to New York this weekend, so we’re on our own for the holiday.

There are various impromptu turkey trots going on in our neighborhood, as walkers and joggers circulate past our house. There were also a couple women walking while wearing turkey hats, because … choices.

After a little basketball early this afternoon, Suzi will cook the turkey with all the fixin’s — I have potato-peeling, dish-wrangling, floor-sweeping and garbage-removal duty — and the banana cream and lemon meringue pies are cooling in the fridge.

And since it’s Thursday, we’ll be capping our night like we always do, with Michael Portillo videos. Although he rode the tracks we walked past this morning on his New England journey — since he has ridden some of the world’s fastest, most-modern and luxurious trains, I’d surely give a pence for his thoughts on our MBTA — tonight’s adventures will take us to Scotland.

As much as I enjoy get-togethers, I’ve also been looking forward to all of this.

As for what I’m thankful for, it’s pretty simple.

I’m grateful to be healthy, and grateful that the people who mean the most to me are healthy. Suzi and I both have booster appointments for next week.

I’m grateful that after two years, someone wanted me, to work for them, and while there have been more than a few anxious moments, it feels like it’s getting better all the time.

Most importantly, I’m grateful that there are way too many people in my life who treat me way too well — my parents, my brother, my grandmother, my friends and especially Suzi.

Think about this … Suzi has chosen to put up with me — me! — every single day, and has been for 20 years. I’m not sure why, but I don’t ask many questions.

To all my great American readers, Happy Thanksgiving.

To my great readers from elsewhere … happy Thursday?

And if anyone tries the turparmen, tell me how it went.

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