For Thanksgiving my sister and her husband brought me to the Eagles Lodge for our Thanksgiving meal. The lodge has a big open room which is ideal for setting up a series of tables, The room I sketch was near the bar and the larger room had long rectangular tables. Our table had about 4 couples and myself.
At the front of the room was a small stage and there was a guy at an electric piano and a woman singing. The volume was intense. We sat near the stage but once the music started everyone retreated to the back of the room in an attempt to be able to hear each other talk. Even back there, you had to shout real loud and lean close to hear in any attempted conversation.
The food was all pre-prepared and it came out very quickly. The turkey meat was all pre-cut and there was stuffing and potatoes. It was a good-sized meal. After we all ate, we moved into the bar area where it was easier to have a conversation, because the musicians were on a break. That is when I took the opportunity to sketch. A football game was on the large screen TVs and many in the bar were rooting for one team or another. One member of our party has since died. His widow is working to get his ashes moved to his home state up north.
I will be returning to Punta Gorda in a few days since my sister has volunteered to drive me to and from a hernia repair operation I am going to have. Since returning to the States this operation has been my primary goal. I am so grateful to have her nearby to help in my recovery. I will stay in her guest room to recover and then my life will once again have a hard restart as I hit the road in search of an apartment in Orlando.
If I recover fast enough, I hope to help my friend Stella Arbelaez Tascón who is building a 14-foot-tall Trump puppet she will showcase at the No Kings Rally in Orlando Florida on March 28, 2026. I helped make the hands for the puppet and I really want to see this behemoth walking in front of City Hall in his orange prison jumpsuit. The puppet construction is far from complete, and I feel bad having to leave during the final crunch to get the whole rig set up. Stella literally worked for 48 hours with no sleep. That is the level of dedication needed to complete such a monumental task. Right now, the puppet rig is set up so the puppet is 14 feet tall. She is debating weather that is too tall. I’m Thankful I have been able to be part of such a monumental build.