Of Thanksgiving and Christmas and a tragic Fire~~~

Hello Darklings,

Well I have been out of the loop but a lot has been happening, so where do I start.

Well we slowly took down the Halloween decorations and carefully packed them away, but then I had a leak in the hot water heater!  A good thing I don't keep anything at floor level, so the water was shut off to it.  

I called my plumber and he quickly came out, for some reason there was a defect in the bottom of the tank, still under warranty,  so had that replaced at no cost. 

Then the Washing Machine broke a belt,  now try and get wet clothing out of a tub full of water and hand wring it out and bail the water out of the tub,  called my appliance repair man,  he replaced the belt, tested the machine,  only just over $100.00.   And we finished wringing the clothing,  Thank Goodness the dryer was working.

Then the original refrigerator that I moved from the kitchen into the large walk in pantry died,  I was a nice large side by side refrigerator freezer, but nothing was going to resurrect it, so moved most of the stuff in the freezer to my sister's and the chilled beer was left out.  

The good thing is my much newer refrigerator works beautifully, so I was deciding, do I move the one in the kitchen into the pantry or install a new one in the pantry,  I mean how hard is it to move a refrigerator?

Well Doyle said "Nope ain't moving it, buy a new one for the pantry and have the delivery guys handle it"  so did that.   Nothing fancy, a good dependable Maytag refrigerator, plain white,  and energy efficient.

With all this happening my brother and sister-in-law said "Thanksgiving at our house!"   What a relief!    So Sis and I brought side dishes while the main feast was cooked at my brother's house,  and relatives and children all over the place,  Thank goodness my brother has a "Man Cave" for the children,  that way we could cook and set up without worry.   And everything was delicious.

My brother yelled up from below that Santa Had Arrived so Christmas is now officially here.   A flash of memory went through my mind of all those Thanksgivings when Dad and my Uncles would watch the Macy's parade with my brother and a couple of nephews, and Mom, Grandma, a couple of Aunts, Sis and I would set up the table and then Dad would call out "Santa arrived!!! You ladies can go Christmas shopping!!"   And Mom and Grandma would roll their eyes.   But it never gets old.

The next day, my sister in law, Coraline, Christopher, Sis and myself we went to the Dickens Fair, I had to use a cane and rest a lot because my leg muscle is still weak but still it was so enjoyable, seeing all the Dickens characters, and the entertainments, and all the lovely things to buy,  Coraline and Chris were wearing Dickens finery thanks to an on line shop called "Recollections"  and the children were having fun researching how to behave in a proper Victorian manner.   We are going back for one more weekend to see what we've might have missed.  But the scent of spices and baking and cinnamon buns,  and hot tea,  and watching scenes from some of the Dickens novels.   It does add magic to the season.

Christmas dinner will be at my house,  we bought the trees today,  a large one for the formal parlor and a smaller one in the family parlor,  bit by bit Christmas decorations have been put up,  I've hired Betty full time to help me,  of course the Maid Service will do the house cleaning,  it's far too much for Betty to handle, but with her and I and occasionally her daughter to assist, along with the Cleaning service it's not so bad.  

But last night was very difficult for me and for some of my friends and I was glad that Sis was at my house to help.

We've had a very tragic fire in town,  if you Google "Oakland Ghost Ship Warehouse Fire" that will give you all the news,  it seems in this Artist Collective Warehouse, where people were illegally living in, a party, some people call it a Rave, was held and a fire broke out and people were trapped, the place was a "fire ready to happen".

My artist friends, the ones I call very Ghostly, had been planning to go to this party to meet someone there but for them luck was on their side, they didn't get there til nearly midnight when the fire was at it's height,  their friend was fine but she couldn't find someone that she met there that my artist friends knew,  only today did they find out this person had died in the fire.  They were grief stricken.

My artist friends didn't know for the last few days, where to go or who to talk to to process their grief, the memorials and areas of prayer didn't seem to assuage their feelings,  so they came to my house,  I think the warmth of the house, the candles burning in the fireplace, the Christmas decorations and the hot lemon ginger tea helped them, I let them talk and talk, even if they were going over it again and again it helped them process it.

They told me that a few weeks ago they were looking for cheap space to rent to do some of their larger works and had checked it out,  at first it appeared enchanting but then when they looked closer, well as she told it to me it was like seeing something that's beautiful on the surface but it hides the decay and rot underneath.   They didn't feel comfortable about it.   They weren't even sure about going to this party so they kept putting off going there and it seems their feeling was right.

He kept saying it was a monster of flame, devouring all that was inside, people crying and calling out if someone had seen someone,  I cannot even write down how they described what they saw.   They were so upset that I put them up for the night saying they should not be alone right now.

This morning they thanked me and said they were going home to change clothing and go out among people and have breakfast,  I said they were welcome to come by again if they needed to talk.   I feel they will take me up on that. 

I listened to them, and Belladonna and Wiener Dog cuddled next to them, I watched as they absentmindedly petted the dogs and scratched their heads,  doing that seemed to relax my visitors, making them drowsy, and helped them to unwind their tensions.

Doyle was very up on the events, and would encourage them to talk, while Sis helped them go through and process the emotions they were feeling. 

This morning they told me that they have idea's for their next series of art work, dealing with tragedy and monsters.   I sort of questioned about it with Sis but she said it will be their way of processing their grief, and I could understand that. 

We watch horror movies to be terrified but then when one sees it, in real life and know that they've lost someone in such a horrible tragedy,  it is a totally different.   I am going to check in with them in a few days to see how they are doing,  something like this one does not get over instantly.  

I'm going to have a Christmas Evening tea, I think I'll invite them, during this time of the year one should not be alone.

I have not posted about wonderfully gothic things,  I did see the Dr. Strange movie and I'll talk about it in my next post.

Later Darklings