Thanksgiving report

We had a very nice one with our Mozambican friends, Christovao and Carlos, at the home of Essex friends, Jennifer and Ron. Here we are getting ready to eat, minus the photographer. The only disaster was that I forgot to bring the carefully constructed cream and garlic sauce which is the heart of garlic mashed potatoes (a family tradition); Roger managed a compromise with new garlic but it wasn't the same. On the other hand, that gave us an excuse to have him make garlic mashed potatoes again last night, which partially made up for the fact that we have none of the precious leftover turkey.

Before dinner we drank tea and went for a very pleasant local walk with C&C--they were interested in everything--the fact that our house is constructed of artificial wood, how the double pane windows work, what the names of the little birds (passerinos) are, what the plants and trees are. They enthusiastically approved of Roger's vegetable garden. They have gone off for the weekend to another church in another part of Connecticut where we will drive tomorrow to hear Carlos preach.

One of the pleasures of the visit was that Carlos' son, who is studying at Magill and gets back to Mozambique only rarely, was able to drive down for the pre-Thanksgiving weekend with his wife and sons, one of whom Carlos had never seen. Here we are at that dinner, with different Essex friends (Chris and Nat) and Carlos' family, again minus the photographer.

Money

I have spent a good deal of time reflecting on the topic over the past few weeks. Roger and I have a retirement based on "defined contribution plans", which means that a good part of our income comes from investments which are exempt from taxes until withdrawn. The problem, in a year like this one for the stock market, is that it's very hard not to pay a lot of attention to the day to day gyrations with the result that one day you feel you can buy another case of champagne and the next that you ought to be drinking nothing but tap water. It's very common for the value of a month's income to come or go in a day.

I mention this not to whine--we're really comfortably off--but because none of the clever souls who write endlessly about retirement have much to say about the psychological effects. I could. of course, buy us annuities and be done with it--but I'd hate to see the net worth disappear and I trust my own management ability more than that of the various investment companies. So instead I read a lot and post a lot on a good finance discussion board and try to stay sensible about it all.

Although staying sensible about the fall of the dollar is VERY hard for an American deeply attached to foreign travel.

Nagging

Who would have thought that the blog would be a new thing to nag about. Just when you thought all the nagging patterns were set in stone. Theo and Roger are both supposed to post and have been so informed.