Scatter my ashes here...

Scatter my ashes here...
scatter my ashes in the desert...

Friday, November 27, 2015

Day 27: Stop Black Friday

It's 18 degrees outside and lightly snowing. We got 4 or 5 inches accumulated since yesterday. We had a quiet Thanksgiving and enjoyed our time with Bella. Simple meal, just a few things, but delicious.

Usually we spend the holiday with our friends here in town but this year they were visiting family on the Western Slope. We knew Bella would appreciate not being left at home alone, and we know it's her last Thanksgiving. We took the Bella to Starbucks for a pup cup yesterday, wrapped her up tight in an extra blanket. She loved it.

I have decided to mount my bike on the trainer in the living room this weekend, so I will have additional options for getting some movement in. The other day I was walking down the stairs and felt a twinge in my left IT band. It felt like a rubber band snapped. Just a tiny twinge, but I can feel that something in there is not quite right. It's not the whole thing, just the edge of it.

It's just a reminder that I need to get back to moving and stretching. Minimal hacking this morning so maybe I've finally got the worst of this bronchitis thing over with. No more excuses.

I try really hard every year not to buy anything on Black Friday. I really resent what it has become, it's like the worst of all the Walmart and Costco shoppers come out of the woodwork, parasites, crawling into lines at dark hours. If you are a Black Friday shopper, whatever your reasons, I don't mean to offend you personally, if you have a good reason for braving the flu-infested crowds, snotty kids, and people wild-eyed with greed, willing to draw blood and brawl on the filthy linoleum floors in the cash register lines for $20 off the TV they want so they can sit around and eat more crap in front of it.

I was so happy when REI announced its #OptOutside campaign. I know it's just another way to market themselves but it really would be nice if most companies would stop forcing their employees to endure the shopping frenzy on one more day when they could be taking care of their own families and well-being. Going outside and breathing some fresh air...what a concept.

I tend to abhor shopping for anything, even groceries, from November through December. Walking into a grocery store and being smacked in the face with the pungent, nose-frying smell of fake cinnamon-scented pine cones and whatever else they have parked near the doors and endcaps is enough to make me turn around gagging and walk out the door. Why we must all be subjected to such scents when some of us find them offensive even in their real form...I do not like cinnamon. And fake cinnamon is even worse.

I don't care about the blank red Starbucks cups. I really don't care about the holiday symbols, they don't bother me. Not a Christian here. I just don't like the greed and overconsumption that goes along with the holidays. Just 38 days until the first Monday after New Years, when it will be safe to go into a store and breathe again!

Bah Humbug and enjoying the fresh air!

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