Peacocks in the cemetary.

Now sometimes you see something that is wonderful, but a little difficult to explain.

Dunedin Peacocks

There is a cemetary in Dunedin Florida that has peacocks. I don't know why. They are wild, they fly around, they could leave if they wanted to, but they like it there. There are a lot of them. When you drive in they run up to see you. Once they figure out that you are an amateur without any cracked corn they ignore you. Go ahead, take your pictures and go.

Black Friday in warmer climates.

I have participated in the craziness of Black Friday for the last few years because it's... well... crazy. You get up early, stand in line in the cold, when the doors open you run in, buy your stuff, rush out, drive to the next place and do it again. You fill up your car with $600 to $1200 worth of stuff, and then drive home and fill out the rebate slips and end up with a huge pile of semi-useful stuff for less than $99 after rebates. Most of it would be given away to people during the year. I was free of this newfound obsession this year because I no longer have a place to store all of the junk.

Well it turns out that in areas of the country that don't have frigid weather, things are even crazier. We had heard that people start camping out at closing time on Wednesday.
So on Thanksgiving day on our way to Dee and Rick's place for dinner I drove through the Best Buy parking lot. Sure enough, there was a long line of tents. These two pictures were taken 17 hours before the store was scheduled to open on Friday morning. Best Buy now brings in Porta-Jons because of the lessons learned after the first year.






Many stores have now started offering the exact same deals online to avoid the crush.
By the way, that Friday is called "Black Friday" because for some stores, it is the symbolic first day of making a profit (or getting in the black).

Keeping up with the news.

So I stopped in a little neighborhood store near Clearwater Florida, you know, one of those stores that sells beer, lottery tickets, cigarettes, and various odd things on the counter to keep you awake, put you to sleep, or make you more manly. I didn't buy the milk that I had gone in for because the expiration date and today's date were on the wrong side of each other, but I spotted something at the counter that I had never seen before. Two stacks of newspapers. One of them was called "CELLMATES" and the other one was called "BUSTED!" or something like that. I didn't want to, but I had to pick it up to look. Yep, right there in living color, mug shots. It promised "See what the charges are inside!!". I thought THAT was an opportunity that I didn't want to miss. But I did because you couldn't actually look inside because it was carefully stapled shut and there was a yellow warning on the binder that said "$1.00 THIS PUBLICATION COSTS ONE DOLLAR $1.00". I put it down.

When I was able to ratchet my jaw back up to the closed position,

I asked Vandeep behind the counter

"Why?", "Why would anyone buy this newspaper?".

Vandeep shrugged his shoulders and said

"To check up on your friends?".

I laughed, and left without it. The next morning I ran back into the store to buy it, not because I wanted to, but because I HAD to, and Vandeep was still behind the counter, adjusting a new display of a pair of NIKE sneakers that was added to the inventory. One pair, brand new with the box and tags and everything. If you were size 11 and you wanted that type of sneaker and happened to walk into THAT store to buy some very old milk, it was your lucky day. Anyhow, I grabbed the "Cellmates" news, but I couldn't get the other one for comparison because the entire stack had sold out the night before. Really. I confirmed that with Vandeep. At that point I felt disappointed that I was stuck buying the "loser" version. The "other" variety must have had pictures of "hotter" shoplifters and cocaine addicts.

Wandering again...

OK, we are on the road again. Sort of.
Headed East to Gainesville for a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat. We headed South to Clearwater for another Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat. and Alice... remember Alice?

Today we headed East to the Atlantic Ocean and I ate Rock Shrimp.
There were pictures along the way and other stuff. Eighty degrees today. They say it is abnormally warm for this time of year. Fine by me.

I was severely stalled by cousin Tim's passing a few days ago, but with the proper editing, I will work through it. The two Thanksgiving dinners with good friends really helped me.

We will be driving a lot tomorrow but I will get back on the stick as soon as we park. Honest.
...but, after I write my column for the Marmon News, then new stuff. Honest.

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I'm so sorry to hear about your cousin.
You are all in my thoughts and prayers.
love chemo sabe November 27, 2007 10:37 AM