A sad day in history

Monday November 22, 2010 Day 145

Yahoo reminded us to ask ourselves where we were 47 years ago today. I was in my fifth grade classroom. It was on a Friday, and my fellow classmates and I were standing around during a break between lessons when an announcement came over the loud speaker that the President had been shot in Dallas. A short time later, another announcement was made, this one that the President was dead. We were informed that we would have early dismissal and that the buses would be along shortly to pick up those of us who rode buses. I think we were out of school for the entire following week. We were already scheduled to be out Wednesday through Friday for Thanksgiving, and with the state funeral on Monday, school officials probably didn’t see any point in bringing us back just for Tuesday. We watched a lot of the proceedings on television. Such a sad and sobering time for our nation.

We walked the Peyrou, again in our stepped-up mode, then went to the grocery store to begin our holiday food shopping. It is not easy to find certain items in the stores here, so I made plans and a grocery list for several recipes, although I only need to cook one or two. We will celebrate Thanksgiving on Sunday with the AWG at the Domaine de Fondespierre, the same place where we had such a pleasant walk Thursday. On our way to the grocery store, we found the Comédie crowded with a more than a hundred little booths. Several people have told me that Montpellier has a wonderful Christmas market, and these are evidently in preparation for same.

This afternoon after Roger left for chess, I went out looking for fifteen thousand steps, and I got lucky. I went to the English Corner Shop to visit Judi and Chuck, but this is Monday and they are only open Tuesday through Saturday. I went to different grocery store from the one we visited this morning, looking for buttermilk and cranberries or cranberry sauce - found the latter. Then I walked along the edge of the historic center where we live, enjoying the Christmas decorations. When I discovered I only needed about fifteen hundred steps to meet my goal, I set out for the Euro store to buy some supplies. When I got home, I had more than met my goal. I have told myself that I will reward myself with Speculoos when I have walked at least fifteen thousand steps the previous day. If I don’t meet my goal, I can’t have any the next morning for breakfast (or any other time). Since our AWG walk on Thursday, I have barely gotten seven thousand steps a day, so this was a victory. It should make that Speculoos taste REALLY sweet!

Here’s a shout-out to Keith Eckstein, yet another follower. Thanks for taking an interest, and welcome aboard. I’m honored. My blog may be a bit more pedestrian than what you hope for, but I do some pretty fine cooking. You are certainly a busy blogger yourself!