There is one thing you can be sure of on the day after our annual butterball bloodbath. SJ Ruth still hasn't attended a Black Friday sale.
For that I am thankful.
It isn't that I don't like a good sale. I'm a natural born cheapskate who almost never pays sticker price for anything, from tires to toothpicks. When I decide I need something, I shop prices for a month just on general principle.
I've travelled for deals, joined clubs for deals, bought in bulk for deals, turned in points for deals, and made deals to get good deals. Why save a dollar when you can save ten, right?
But no, I still haven't gotten up at an ungodly hour to get to a store an hour before I'm out of bed for work to fight a couple hundred other rabid consumers determined to save 70% on one of the only 5 super wide screen TVs in stock.
Even if it was something I really needed at 70% off and plenty in stock, I'd avoid the Black Friday sale just like this day after tur-carnage 2020.
Why would I skip the opportunity to save some serious coin on stuff to put under the Christmas tree?
Even if there weren't a pandemic, which I realize is the view of many who wouldn't be caught dead reading this if they could read, I'd be spending my day after in the woods up on a mountain like I have been for years. A day is not enough time to be thankful for all the good things we have.
A weekend hiking the ridge is the kind of time I need getting my thankful on. This may sound weird to some, but for me, that kind of thing works a lot better than a big box spending orgy and broke by noon.
It comes with the added bonus of burning off the three plates full I had for Thanksgiving meal, the four deserts afterward, and the round of seconds before the night game. Not to mention the celebratory libations.
That's one more thing to be thankful for.
Speaking of, I'm also thankful that the Donald decided to maintain at least one of our great traditions, the annual pardoning of the Thanksgiving turkey. It signifies, once again, that we are a mighty nation with a soft side. A nation capable of caring, of mercy.
It might be worth pointing out there was more than one turkey in that Sidewalk Covered Rose Garden (Melania's Maze) ceremony this week. They shared the same color neck wear. Did anyone see which one was named in the official pardon paperwork Putin's puppy was signing?
Surely the personal pizza pitchman didn't sign a personal pardon!
I apologize for calling you Shirley. It's a strange year, stranger than any you or I have encountered. A global pandemic. Economic devastation across the country. Conspiracy theories dominating national discourse. Alternative facts. It's been so strange nobody remembers it started with an impeachment trial.
Now that's a sideways year right there. I'm trying to walk it off, still thankful I can do it.