By ENGR101.com Staff.  Adapted with thanks to Arnold Ahlert and his “The Ghost of Thanksgiving Yet to Come.”  Published October 7, 2011

“Winston, come into the dining room, it’s time to eat,” Julia yelled to her husband. “In a minute, honey, it’s a tie score,” he answered. Actually Winston wasn’t very interested in the traditional holiday football game between Detroit and Washington. Ever since the government passed the Civility in Sports Statute of 2017, outlawing tackle football for its unseemly violence and the bad example it sets for the rest of the world, Winston was far less of a football fan than he used to be. Two-hand touch wasn’t nearly as exciting.

Yet it wasn’t the game that Winston was uninterested in. It was more the thought of eating another TofuTurkey. Even though it was the best type of VeggieMeat available after the government revised the American Anti-Obesity Act of 2018, adding fowl to the list of federally-forbidden foods, (which already included potatoes, cranberry sauce and mince-meat pie), it wasn’t anything like real turkey. And ever since the government officially changed the name of Thanksgiving Day to A National Day of Atonement in 2020 to officially acknowledge the Pilgrims historically brutal treatment of Native Americans, the holiday had lost a lot of its luster.

Eating in the dining room was also a bit daunting. The unearthly gleam of government-mandated fluorescent light bulbs made the TofuTurkey look even weirder than it actually was, and the room was always cold. Ever since Congress passed the Power Conservation Act of 2016, mandating all thermostats which were monitored and controlled by the electric company be kept at 68 degrees, every room on the north side of the house was barely tolerable throughout the entire winter.

Still, it was good getting together with family. Or at least most of the family. Winston missed his mother, who passed on in October, when she had used up her legal allotment of life-saving medical treatment. He had had many heated conversations with the Regional Health Consortium, spawned when the private insurance market finally went

By Reid Sharp
Published September 8, 2011.
(Update: Total homes now destroyed exceeds 1400)

All total, they are estimating 38,000 acres have burned and 500+ houses have been lost. At least two dead. Expecting more given the stubbornness of Bastrop County folks. It’s burned from Bastrop to nearly Smithville and south nearly 16 miles.

It’s still east of our home. We’ve had a frightening view of it all from our little hill west of town. Seems to be dying down – last night the horizon was not as orange. At our house we’ve cut fire breaks and have two tractors with box blades and a fire hose hooked up to the pool. Cindy has packed everything important into the Suburban in case we have to evacuate.

The lesson I have learned is that you can put all you really need in this world into a Suburban.
Our bank facilities remain intact, undamaged and serving our customers in their time of need – some without communication. Unfortunately, we have 10 employees that know they have lost their houses and everything they own. There’s twenty more folks who have been evacuated from their houses and the status of their homes is unknown because the deputies won’t let them back in. Given the areas, I would estimate that at least another ten families lost their homes. Not knowing is the worst part. All total about a ¼ of our employees are directly affected. We are providing all our employees with days off to deal with the disaster either to get their personal lives back on track or to volunteer to help those affected.

Some folks are taking this all surprisingly well. We have a 50% market share of the county so most of these folks are our customers. We’re inviting friends and neighbors into our