Black Friday

I'm not sure why this merits comment, except to note why some of us - well, this one of us anyway - go out of our way to avoid getting caught up in it.

There are always the knees, of course. I carefully choose where and when to physically go out and shop these days. There has to be very limited walking, or a shopping cart/scooter. It's why I chose Wally World over Target, much as I politically hate supporting the former.  Most days there is an abundance of fully charged carts available in a Wally World. Target is much stingier in supplying them. Black Friday is one of the days where finding a scooter is impossible, not to mention just getting handicap parking.

There's the internet. I can carefully select and research my purchases from the comfort of home with my feet up. Most anything is available these days, ordered, paid and delivered, barring groceries out in my small rural community.

Most of the Black Friday sales are nothing I want to buy anyway. If the sale is truly wonderful, it's not in my gifting budget. If it's for myself, that's never the right time to replace an old TV, say, or washing machine. Those never break down just at that time of year or any time there's a major sale on. Life just doesn't work that way. And any wonderful sale will be limited in supply to those who are willing to get up or stay up until some ungodly hour and fight for a spot in an ungodly line, racing to the spot in the store where the coveted item sits.

Not me.

I prefer to gift shop throughout the year, seeing that special something that is just for a special person and available when/where I am. Or else, picking up supplies throughout the year to make something just for that special person. The last few years I've been making jewelry, finding stones or beads to go with each person on the gift list, or finding some special thing at an auction or on my travels. Those things are never reduced on Black Friday. Most aren't even available then.

Then of course, there's work. Most years I remember to put my name down on the time-off calendar in time to stay home for a four-day weekend. Not this year. I had'nt even thought about it this year before the fleet message got sent out that the time-off calendar was full and the rest of us should plan on working.

Oops.

Well, maybe not so much oops. I've taken a lot of time off this fall, between Arizona, a new tranny, and the hospital, with another week scheduled in Arizona before X-mas. I could use any extra income, even what I anticipate from a really slow work day like Black Friday. So I'll be out and about, just not in the stores.

Not even to pick up my new glasses, which should be in then.  They'll wait. Maybe the next Monday or Tuesday, depending on my evening work schedule. Which schedule I'll find out about Monday or Tuesday evening. And which glasses cost twice what the last pair did a few years back. Ouch! I'm not adding the frustrations of Black Friday to that errand.

So if you want to be out there, go ahead. Just don't expect to see me there.