{"id":724,"date":"2013-11-25T05:30:19","date_gmt":"2013-11-25T15:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/?p=724"},"modified":"2013-11-25T06:46:11","modified_gmt":"2013-11-25T16:46:11","slug":"gearing-up-for-thanksgiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/?p=724","title":{"rendered":"Gearing up for Thanksgiving"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have to gear up for Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n<p>It demands attention to detail, good manners and an iron stomach, all things I have in abundance but usually ignore.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes I&#8217;m expected to hang out with people I see only once a year, be pleasant and eat until I gag and require help from the fire department to get up.<\/p>\n<p>The visitor&#8217;s are\u00a0all working their cell phones so I just wander off and watch football.<\/p>\n<p>We all have our traditions and mine&#8217;s going off in a corner.<\/p>\n<p>I really am sociable but I&#8217;m also a loner by nature.<br \/>\nThe wife likes it because she goes out with her girlfriends a lot and I don&#8217;t grumble.<\/p>\n<p>They probably think I&#8217;m being grumpy.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s not true, but my conversations often center around, &#8220;What&#8217;s for dinner?&#8221; and since that&#8217;s already answered, there&#8217;s nothing left to say.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ll all get together again next year and do the same thing.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not talking about the purpose of Thanksgiving &#8211; getting together to express thanks for what we have.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/eat-ham.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-726\" alt=\"eat ham\" src=\"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/eat-ham-165x250.png\" width=\"165\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/eat-ham-165x250.png 165w, http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/eat-ham-198x300.png 198w, http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/eat-ham.png 232w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 165px) 100vw, 165px\" \/><\/a>I&#8217;m talking about\u00a0the bad thing about Thanksgiving &#8211;\u00a0eating turkey for weeks afterwards.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m eating that stuff for as long as the leftovers remain in the refrigerator and the wife is dishing them up.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve had Turkey Ala King, turkey sandwiches, turkey salad, turkey casserole, turkey pie, turkey soup, steamed turkey, fried turkey, microwaved turkey and several dozen other variations that have yet to be given a name.<\/p>\n<p>Just about the time I want to kill myself if I eat anymore turkey, we do the same thing for Christmas but she also throws in a ham.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s gone within days and &#8211; oh look, there&#8217;s turkey leftovers.<\/p>\n<p>The one saving thing is the science of natural selection and that the turkey has evolved over thousands and millions of years to ease my pain.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/tryptophan-sized.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-734\" alt=\"tryptophan-sized\" src=\"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/tryptophan-sized.jpg\" width=\"122\" height=\"136\" \/><\/a>You see, turkey contains tryptophan as you can see by the scientific diagram.<\/p>\n<p>That stuff makes people sleepy.<br \/>\nScientists call it\u00a0an essential amino acid, as demonstrated by its growth effects on rats.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rat.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-733\" alt=\"Rat\" src=\"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rat.png\" width=\"200\" height=\"212\" \/><\/a>If they ever need more, I got one hanging out in the back yard as evidenced by the wife&#8217;s screams some nights.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s why Thanksgiving Day everywhere\u00a0are\u00a0households of people sitting around looking blurry-eyed and talking nonsense like shopping strategy for Black Friday.<\/p>\n<p>As for me, I hear enough nonsense at work so I&#8217;m off sleeping somewhere in front of the TV tuned to football.<\/p>\n<p>I consider this practice for\u00a0one of the most valuable of business skills &#8211; dozing in meetings with my eyes open.<\/p>\n<p>Since most meetings at work run an hour or so, and most of them start repeating after 20 minutes, I can usually get a 40 minute nap while someone is droning on.<\/p>\n<p>Happy holidays.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon-text sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-724\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon\" href=\"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/?p=724&amp;share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-724\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon\" href=\"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/?p=724&amp;share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-email\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-email sd-button share-icon\" href=\"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/?p=724&amp;share=email\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to email this to a friend\"><span>Email<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have to gear up for Thanksgiving. It demands attention to detail, good manners and an iron stomach, all things I have in abundance but usually ignore. Sometimes I&#8217;m expected to hang out with people I see only once a &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/?p=724\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon-text sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-724\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon\" href=\"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/?p=724&amp;share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-724\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon\" href=\"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/?p=724&amp;share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-email\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-email sd-button share-icon\" href=\"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/?p=724&amp;share=email\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to email this to a friend\"><span>Email<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Urrt-bG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=724"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":740,"href":"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions\/740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}