Nostalgia: A weekend with the Parents

I had a good weekend with my parents. I went back to help them butcher turkeys. They've raised them most every year since I was quite young and it was as much for nostalgia that I went as to actually help (and of course score a nice juicy turkey.)  I know it's probably odd for me to feel happy about plucking bloodied feathers off poultry, and yet.

There were nine all told. The biggest tom weighed in at 30 pounds. I remember one Thanksgiving we had a 35 pounder and had to rig two roasting pans together. Good thing my mom has a restaurant size oven. The hens were all in the upper teens.

We ate one for dinner of course. Nothing like eating meat so fresh it was breathing hours ago and never frozen. The meal was accompanied by all sorts of home grown veggies too.

And the company was nice too. For years I sort of avoided visiting. I always mostly blamed it on the distance or the unpredictable weather. But really, I was just unsure of myself. I hate confrontation. I know that many of my choices have disappointed my parents and I simply didn't want to face that. Over the years, I've come out of it a bit. Perhaps because my parents are getting more used to seeing me with a beard. Or they maybe just miss me. And probably also because I'm more confident in myself. I don't pretend to be anything I am not and I am so far past most of my transition that I can endure the wrong name and pronouns without undue cringing and absolutely no confrontation.

We all seem to know enough not to talk about points of contention: my transition, religion, politics. However, some politics came up. We talked about GMOs a bit. I am not as worried as my mom is, apparently. And we discussed Trump or "The Donald" as my parents dub him. We agree he's full of shit and also scary. This is a relief to know that they don't side with him.

On Sunday we went on a very small, but very pretty hike. I had Zorro with me and he and my mom's dog loved playing in the water and running around off-leash. There aren't many places around Denver that Zorro is able to do such things.

I will spare the audience any photos from the day before. Only the hike.

Happily swimming Zorro and Blaze. If it were summer, I may have swum there too!

My parents.

Just before heading homeward, my parents loaded me up with meat and veggies and fruit and jams. I got a cooler full of turkey, chicken, beef and lamb. Several homemade jams. Fresh green beans, carrots, zucchini, apples, plums, and grapes.

So despite driving 350 miles in two days, and not feeling 100%. It was a good weekend.