The Budget of Paradox

Sophia:
Happy Birthday. I had some flowers delivered on the day. I hope you got them. Obligatory reminiscing: I remember your birth very well. I was there. I remember the events of the day. I have video from when you just a few minutes old. In the video, I can hear your mom and the nurses talking. Pappa Bear was there. It’s strange to hear his voice now.

I hope your Thanksgiving was enjoyable or at least bearable. I didn’t do anything. It’s not celebrated where I am. It was just another day.

Time for a quick story? Back in Hawaii, your mother and I had a friend who would deep-fry turkeys. He would host a party, and if you brought a whole, thawed turkey, he would fry it in a large pot. In fact, here is a photo. When it was fully cooked, we would take it home and let it cool for a few hours.

One Thanksgiving, we did this, and let the fried turkey sit on our kitchen countertop to cool while we had dinner at Nana Lee’s house that night. It smelled wonderful.

We had two dogs in the house, so we pushed the turkey far from the edge. They were troublemakers, and we knew they would try to get the turkey while we were gone.

Your mother and I came back several hours later. The turkey was gone. It was on a plate which was now shattered on the floor. We found various oily stains in the carpet and some of the beds. But we never found any of the turkey, not even the bones. It was probably 15 pounds, and those two devil dogs ate it all.

We could always tell when the dogs were in trouble. When we arrived home, normally, they would greet us at the door. But Blythe was hiding somewhere in shame. And Maddie was too dumb to be ashamed. Both dogs had oily faces.

We laughed and laughed.

We had no idea how they got the turkey down from the counter. It was seemingly out-of-reach.