Every year or so people are sharing what apps they have on their phone's home screen, and I'm not immune to the immense pressure to join in.

Either that, or I am totally lacking content for today's post.

Anyway... here's my home screen...

Yes. I know. I am aware.

My screen is boring as hell. But that's intentional. I want as distraction-free an experience as possible. Which means my background is black so the icons have focus. I know what the icons are, so I remove the text by having them at maximum size. The only widget I have is Carrot Weather (both hourly and forecast). And there's the apps...

• Carrot Weather: The weather is kinda important where I live, and I appreciate the raw snark and hate you can get from Carrot. The widget at the top is also from the app, which shows the hourly and 4-day forecast in one.
• World Clock Pro: Having to coordinate time zones is not as important now as it used to be, but it's still handy to know what the time is in Uzebekistan from time to time.
• Apple Maps: After years of using a combination of Waze and Google Maps, I finally went to Apple late last year because I preferred the experience (and it's what I like for CarPlay).
• TickTick: I bounced between this, Things, Todoist, and Apple Reminders for forever. But eventually decided to just settle on the one I like the best, which is this. Also on my "Action Button" because it's constantly in use.
• Messenger/Facebook: Despite the fact that I despise the platform, this is the place where most of my online friends are. And so I use shitty Facebook Messenger and shitty Facebook apps to connect to the shitty service.
• Telegram: Mostly used to communicate for some of my work which requires it.
• WhatsApp: Used for work and for friends in foreign countries where this is what's used instead of texting.
• FindMy: I am forever losing my shit. And losing my stuff. So using Apple's FindMy to figure out where my Apple Watch, iPad, or stuff tagged with AirTags are hiding is something I do often enough that I keep the app on home.
• Photos: I take photos not just for keepsakes (or to have an hourly record of what my cats are doing), but also for communicating complex things more easily and remembering stuff. So I'm in this app all the time.
• Halide: My "Camera Control" opens Apple's Camera app, which is what I use most of the time. It's quick and easy. But when I want to take a photo where I have absolute control, Halide is my go-to.
• Wallet: Despite the fact that Washington State is a backwards fucking void when it comes to allowing us to have our driver's licenses stored digitally, I love Apple's Wallet. My house key, all of my credit cards, my loyalty cards, my insurance cards, my tickets, my passes... just everything lives here and is immediately accessible.
• Settings: I put this here years ago because I was constantly having to fiddle with something. But now-a-days I keep wanting to replace it with something because I'm rarely using it. Something to think about, I guess.
• Toyota: This app ain't great, but it's the only one they have to interact with my car. I don't use it very often, but when I do it's usually important enough to be slapped on my home screen.
• HomeKit: There's a growing list of things that suck about Apple's apps... but HomeKit HomeShit is at the top of the list as to being the suckiest. Lord how I fucking hate it. But, that's how my entire home is controlled, so here it is living on my home screen like it has earned it rather than just being semi-useful.
• Nest: This is where I can view my abundance of security cameras and smoke alarms and such. I keep thinking that I'll be forced to switch to the Google Home app, but this still kinda works. I have to re-log-in way more often than I should and you get errors often, but it's better than Google Home until I can no longer use it. Which is probably any minute now.
• Microsoft Outlook: It ain't perfect, but it's a damn site better than Apple's shitty fucking Mail and Calendar apps which have absolutely zero features for people who need to use these critical services for actual serious work. My personal email is still in Apple Mail on the next page so I can keep things separate.
• Phone: Yet another Apple app that's not as good as it should be, but it works for those times I am forced to make or receive a call.
• Safari: I actually rather like the browser better than most. But Arc is gaining ground fast and I may end up switching one day.
• Messages: This is an Apple app that's okay... but that's a serious problem, because it needs to be better than okay. It's a clutzy app that's more interesting in looking pretty than actually being a functional texting app. Most of the time, that's fine by me. But there are times I wish that Apple would just get their shit together for the love of God. I probably wouldn't be so sour on it if it would only handle spam in a sane way. But, alas...

Oh... by the way, Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

For future reference, these recipes turned out pretty great and are suitable for Thanksgiving or any time...

• Roasted Butternut Squash With Brown Butter Vinaigrette — I love butternut squash, and this is an incredible way to cook it.
• Cacio e Pepe Green Beans — If I had it to do over, I would steam the beans, shake them in melted butter, salt, and pepper... then layer the cheese. The water doesn't evaporate fast enough and the beans don't cook as well as steamed.
• Corn Casserole — I wasn't sure it was done and ended up overcooking it. I did like the surface area of a 13×9 dish for the cheese topping.

Blessed as I am, it's easy to find things to be thankful for.

But there's a lot of baggage that comes with this American Day of Thanks. Personally for sure, but also as a country. That's something that all too often gets overlooked and it really shouldn't.

This remains my favorite take on it all...

The two Addams Family movies are genius. I don't know why we never got a third with that incredible cast.

As a vegetarian, today is far from "Turkey Day" to me.

I haven't eaten meat for over 37 years, but I was never much of a turkey guy to begin with. I'd eat it... but at a 50/50 ratio with jellied cranberry. I also didn't care for steaks, ribs, sausage, ham, pork chops, chicken, or any kind of seafood. The only meats I did like were hamburgers, bacon, and pepperoni. That's it. Everything else was eaten reluctantly.

Turns out I was predisposed towards vegetarianism from the start. But discovering Buddhism was what it took to push me over the edge.

I'm rather happy with the vegetarian alternatives to hamburger and bacon. And, believe it or not, I was never a fan of hotdogs until I discovered the vegetarian variety.

There is no adequate vegetarian substitute for pepperoni.

If there was, that would be something to be thankful for.

I've never understood the love of eating dead turkey... even when I ate dead turkey. It's dry and pasty and smells weird. The only way to make it edible is to smother it with gravy or cranberry sauce or both.

Still, I'd imagine it's tastier than live turkey.

When it comes to being thankful on this Day of Thanksgiving, I suppose my list is longer than most. Me and my cats are relatively healthy, have a place to live, have food to eat, and nobody is wanting to eat us...

IF ONLY I COULD BE THANKFUL FOR SOMEBODY GIVING ME A MILLION DOLLARS!

hint hint

I have a great deal to be thankful for.

And yet... it's tough to find a way to appreciate it in the middle of a pandemic where there are still people who are fucking things up and dragging everything out. It seriously feels like COVID is never going to end. The virus continues to mutate, and the anti-vax/anti-mask brigade doesn't seem to give a shit. Despite the fact that they are twenty times more likely to die if they contract COVID when compared to those who are vaccinated.

Oh well. All I can do is attempt to remain careful and try not to die from being one of the few breakthrough cases that happen. What else is there?

It's not that I don't have anything to be thankful for.

I have so much. And I try to appreciate that. Honestly I do. I haven't managed to catch COVID yet. I still have a job. I have a roof over my head and something to eat. I have friends that mean the world to me (even though I don't ge to see them). I have my cats.

There are a great many people who have far less.

And yet...

This was my day today...

Happy Thanksgiving to me.

And to you.

I was never much into Thanksgiving. Though I've always been into being thankful.

When I was a kid, Thanksgiving was just a bump in the road on the way to Christmas. The family would get together at grandma's house where we'd all partake in her amazing cooking... and even more amazing dessert. When I became a vegetarian in 1986 I was anticipating problems. But my grandmother took it completely in stride. She made the stuffing outside the bird and used vegetable broth. Beans no longer had bacon in them. I was able to eat more than my fill without eating meat, and it was fine.

My grandmother was pretty great like that.

When grandma couldn't cook large-scale meals any more, Thanksgiving became progressively more scaled back. Instead of her roasting an entire turkey, there would be a "turkey loaf" (whatever that was). Dessert was store-bought. And when she had to be moved to a care facility, some of the family would show up and order extra plates from the cafeteria so we could still have dinner together. It wasn't the same. It sure didn't taste as good. But it meant something special to her for everybody to get together, and that's all that mattered.

After my grandmother passed there would be no more Thanksgiving dinners.

Before the next one rolled around, my mom would already be in a care facility. Her first Thanksgiving there, my brother and I were able to take her to the Denny's up the road. The next Thanksgiving was too difficult for her to travel even a short ways, so we had it in her room with to-go plates from that same Denny's. It was at that point that we found out she had difficulty feeding herself, making her last Thanksgiving a depressing affair for all three of us.

She didn't make it to the next Thanksgiving.

And so now I'm just done with it all. I am not interested in going to another Thanksgiving dinner. All it would do is be a painful reminder of all I've lost, even as I continue to be thankful that I had so many good Thanksgivings with my mom and grandmother in the past.

For however many years I have left, I'm happy to cook up some mashed potatoes with bread stuffing and cranberry jelly and spend the day with my cats.

That's a good enough Thanksgiving for me.

For the first Thanksgiving in my entire life, I have nowhere I have to be. No heading to grandma's house for a family dinner. Grandma is gone. No driving over the mountains to buy a turkey plate for my mom at Denny's. Mom is gone. And while I'm grateful that I have places I could be, I think not being anywhere is what's best for me right now.

Last night I took a handful of sleeping pills so I wouldn't have to think about Thanksgiving. My cats decided to have a party.

• Jake tried to get into the new auto-feeder and knocked it away from the bowls... so food was EVERYWHERE this morning.**
• Jenny stepped on the "All Lights On" button on the home remote which lit up the entire ground floor at 2:30am.
• Jake brought all his toys upstairs.
• Jenny chased Jake on top of the writing desk and knocked over my Tiffany vase* (which wasn't broken).

So I woke up and got to clean up cat food, turn off lights, pick up toys, and gather toys for my Thanksgiving. Perfect!

Then I got to answer emails while being visited by my cats...

It was a great way to start my day.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

*Back when Northwest Airlines was being merged with Delta, they sent out really nice Tiffany vases to their top-tier flyers as a "welcome gift" to Delta's SkyMiles frequent flyer program. Every once in a while I see them pop up on eBay (or other auction sites) for ridiculously low prices (usually around $40-$50).

**Guess I'm coming up with a way of securing the feeder so it can't move. Oh what fun...

The plan was to get up at 7:00am, take care of the cats, get cleaned up, then drive over the mountains to spend Thanksgiving with family.

All of which was scrapped when I checked the weather report for Stevens Pass...

Winter Storm Warning for East Slopes Northern Cascades, WA. Several rounds of snow for the mountains through the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Heavy mountain snow will pummel the Cascades today into Friday morning. Snow accumulations will make travel very hazardous or impossible over mountain passes like Stevens Pass on Highway 2 and east towards Plain, Sherman pass on Highway 20, and Blewett pass on Highway 97. Winter Storm Warning remains in effect until 6 AM PST Friday.

If I had four-wheel drive? I probably would have risked it. But I don't. I don't even have snow tires on. Just some all-weather radials with an old set of chains in the trunk.

And so? Thanksgiving ruined.

Though I did try and be thankful for what I did have: A day home from work.

Thanksgiving breakfast was tacos, because that's all I had to eat. I wasn't supposed to be here, so I never went to the store. They were pretty awesome. Thanksgiving dinner was a plate of butter with some microwaved potatoes...

Jenny and Jake sure liked having me home. They followed me around everywhere all day long. Starting when I took a shower and went to brush my teeth...

Jenny kept running out to the catio, getting cold, running back inside to steal my body heat, then running right back out again...

That's something to be thankful for, I suppose. It's nice to be useful.

Hope your Thanksgiving was equally eventful.

I am working on Thanksgiving Day.

Your faux outrage is most appreciated!

Time to be thankful you're not a turkey...