John's Blog

Much like the groundhog emerges from his hole to see his shadow and proclaim that there are six more weeks of winter, I emerge from my post-Thanksgiving stupor and see that there are four more weeks till Christmas. If I had needed any sort of a reminder (which I didn't) about why I dislike holiday shopping, Black Friday certainly made it abundantly clear.

The past few years we ran a coupon at work that just allowed people to come in a get $10 worth of stuff for free, which many people viewed a a challenge to see how many times they could go to different registers and get their "one per customer" coupon. This year a qualifying purchase of $20 was required to get their free $10. I innocently thought that this would prevent the day from becoming another free-for-all crapfest. I was wrong. It was better, but the difference was subtle, much like turning a stereo down to a "9" from a "10".

Last year's madness included many instances of parking grandma or the children on their "loot" while the rest of the family ran around and cashed in their coupons. There was much less of that this year, but the above sight was still common. This woman sat on a much larger pile of stuff from about 6:15 a.m. until about 1:30 p.m. on Friday. At one point, I thought her family had forgotten her and just gone home. Again, I was wrong. They did come back and pick up grandma and then repeated the process on Saturday. The picture and the description can't convey just what a madhouse these kind of days really are. But trust me, you probably are happier not knowing.

A few more post-turkey day random thoughts:

A nice, relaxing (although too short) Thanksgiving Day. The three hour drive went quickly and without incident. That's no small accomplishment considering my driving companions were the wife with with full blown PMS, and the dog who seems to have a weak bladder. Only one hair-raising stop on the side of the turnpike for a doggie "wee-wee" break.

Gotta love the benefits of technology. I can't say enough good things about the convenience of driving with an EZ-pass and an iPod, as opposed to fumbling for change and CD's while driving.

I had a ton of cool ideas while driving that I thought would make great blogging material. Unfortunately, since I couldn't write them down I don't recall a single one of them. Yea, I know; they couldn't have been that good.

My turkey carving skills seem to be improving. Last year's attempt left us with many piles of turkey crumbs. This year I truely believe they could be considered slices.

Almost had a post-dinner incident during the clean-up phase. I was doing the dishes and reached for the scouring pad on the corner of the sink. What I didn't see was the cup with these large spikes that had been used to stitch up the turkey's butt to keep the stuffing in the bird. Mom had left them to soak, but for some reason had them in the cup with the points facing up. I had jammed one of these puppies into my hand, and I pulled back in pain. The "F" word was on the tip of my tongue, but my self-control returned just in time to avoid offending everyone. When I pulled back, the spike came out of my hand and wound up getting stuck in the ceiling. I'm lucky it didn't hit anybody.