So How Was YOUR Thanksgiving?

 

Visit #1396, Thanksgiving Day, 24 November 22, 12:45-1:00PM, mileage and litter n/a.

Temps in the high 40s, sunny.

Visit #1397, Sunday 27 November 22, 7:00-9:00AM, 1.4 miles, 5.7 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the high 30's, increasing clouds with rain predicted for the afternoon.

Recreation Coordinator for the Meriden Parks and Recreation, Kathy Matula, mentioned to me someone placed stickers on a kiosk in Hubbard Park and she could not remove them.

So on Thanksgiving Day I had some spare time thought I'd try my hand at removing them.

About a week ago I tried applying Goo Gone to the stickers with the same results Kathy had. I decided the colder temperatures were making things difficult. This time I came prepared.

I applied more Goo Gone then used a wallpaper scraper. Not only was it not working, the scraper's blade was scratching the plexiglass. That would not do.

First, I tried something a little more gentle than a sharp blade. Big Y to the rescue!

While it wasn't scratching the plexiglas, it wasn't progressing well.

Plan B. I needed HEAT.

I soaked a rag in some near-boiling water from a thermos and applied held the rag over the stickers for less than a minute.

It worked so fast it had me laughing!

That's why I only spent fifteen minutes in Hubbard Park on Thanksgiving Day.

On Sunday I resumed roadside trimming on the road to Castle Craig.

After an hour, I stopped and picked up litter around the castle and the parking lot.

So how was MY Thanksgiving, you ask? Other than the joyous success of removing stickers from the kiosk, let me tell you how my day went.

I'm not a fan of tradition, and that includes turkey and all the trimmings on Thanksgiving. What I planned to do instead was to bake a pumpkin pie, and eat the entire pie within Thanksgiving Day. My calculations and training said it was doable, probably before lunch.

I bought the one-can pie filling, evaporated milk, and a pre-fab graham cracker pie shell.

I mixed up the batter and poured it into the shell. There was more batter than would fit into the shell so I was going to lick up the excess batter. I stuck my finger in the bowl and gathered up a taste of pumpkin pie filling-I FORGOT THE SUGAR!

No biggie; I'll just pour the batter back out of the pie shell into the bowl, add the sugar, and return it to the graham cracker crust.

Things were going wonderfully-until the crust slid out of the pin tin and into the batter.

So how was YOUR Thanksgiving?