Black Friday. Not for me. My sisters cat and my wonderful friend Beth.

If you live in the United States "Black Friday" has become a phenomenon. Retailers are opening earlier and earlier with all kinds of teaser deals to get you into the store, as early as 6 p.m. in some states, on Thanksgiving night. I'm waiting to see the trampling videos on the news. Retailers aren't allowed to open on Thanksgiving in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine because of what is called up here, the "Blue Laws". They can open at midnight though as it is officially the day after. You won't find me in the throng of consumers shopping at midnight, never mind, 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving night. Most of the stores around here didn't open until 5 or 6 a.m. the next day. True they are offering some good deals but I can't help like feeling like a sheep being herded to slaughter.. On top of it I had to start work on Friday at 6 a.m. As I listened to the news on the radio at 4:30 in the morning there were already traffic jams at certain points where a mall was located. By the way it was a long day on Friday. 6 a.m. until 4 p.m. Fortunately the first 6 hours were slow probably because people either had to work, had the day off and didn't want to go anywhere or they were Christmas shopping. You can leave me out of all that madness. I can't help but feel manipulated by all these big businesses. People who run these big companies, always make out whether or not the business is successful. They still get their bonuses. They always walk away with cash in their pockets whether or not they have success running a company or they milk it dry and kill it. My favorite comedian, George Carlin once said, and I'm not sure if this is an exact quote, and please forgive the wording, the rich keep all the money and pay none of the taxes. The middle class does all of the work, pays all of the taxes and the poor are there to scare the shit out of the middle class. George was a brilliant man.

Apart from all that grumbling my actual Thanksgiving Day was good. The meal was good, there were no family fights, not that we ever had them, but people have stories about holiday gatherings that descend into petty bickering and fighting. Ours was quite nice. Then there was my sisters cat, Mickey. I don't have a picture of Mickey but he is a very large tabby cat around 20 pounds with large double paws. He can picks things up with one paw to look at them. He also is the only cat I ever saw that will fetch a thrown little red rubber ball and return it. It took a bit to get him to learn to release the ball, but when he realized that you would throw it again the game was on. He flies down the stairs, smashes into the wall and bring it back. He also has a very sweet disposition and is quite vocal and social. Well Mickey was singing his "I wanna go out" song and my sister would say, "No Mickey it's too late and too cold."
Now don't tell me they're not smart and can't reason things out. He finished whining and walked over to a floor plant and sat by it. He then looked at my sister then looked at the plant. He did this 3 times, then suddenly took a swipe at the plant tearing off 3 or 4 leaves. My sister shouted "Mickey!" and got up. The cat took off and led her right to the door. She was angry with him and let him out. He got his way. That's pretty clever.

Well it's taken me 3 days to write this not because of exhaustive research though the exhaustive part played a role as apart from today I was never able to sit at the computer for any length of time without having to do something, go somewhere, return phone calls or just plain fall asleep. As I write this it's about 6:08 Saturday evening. I have two phone calls to make then it's time for supper.

On a final note, as I walked up the stairs to my front door tonight after work, I reached into my mail box. There was one item. I get inside flick the light on and what do I see? A birthday card from Beth. I was both surprised  and touched. Thank you so much Beth! You are the sweetest person. I can't thank you enough but I will think of something. Again, thank you Beth!

That's it.
I'm outta here.