Family Ties

The year was 1862, and the Battle for the Shenandoah Valley raged hard-it was vitally important to divert the Union forces from shacking up and burning Richmond. That summer was a game of cat and mouse all over Central and Western Virginia, and Stonewall Jackson played it well. Later, a famous painting of him was done at a fence at a certain small farm in New Market. It was several years before Sheridan would do his damage, and the Valley was still rich in crops,green, and photo(or picture) genic. Anyway, 146 years later the hill is still there,(but not the fence, nor the tree) it has been in my uncle's family since before forever. It is so cool to think that there, history was made.(saw the picture in their house)

The family get-together was the usual eclectic group of far-righties and far-lefties trying to be pleasant to each other(this was accomplished by the far-righties not talking about the subject at all)...the house was packed with people. Had bolused aggressively for a post-breakfast high and found myself 84 with lunch still an hour away so I had to chug juice. My relative with diabetes was there, and I never know what to say because as a teenager, my mom took me to the hospital to see her and scare the bejabbers out of me. (the complications of diabetes) I was scared all right but it spurred me to teenage turn-off. Now I know I should be more of an adult + actually have a conversation with her but that was not the best of experiences and I'd rather not know.As long as she's happy(which she appeared to be) and having the best health possible I wish her well. Lunch was good, afterwords we viewed my dad's video, played games, toured the farm, ate more food, and gradually dissipated down to fewer and fewer people and then we left.
A good Thanksgiving, overall.