BLACK FRIDAY, yet, the Sun is shining in Ahia

Comfort while shopping at COSTCO

Here sits one of the most beautiful women in the world.

Sitting in COSTCO talking on her cell phone

Angie Harmon, in case you don't recognize her like this.

I took this off of her Facebook page, I hope it is OK to do that.

This was her comment.

"I'm not gonna lie, 

I really appreciate how Costco makes phone calls while shopping COMFY & EASY..."

Apology

I know it is a holiday, great season, but I had some hymns running through my head while showering and shaving ..... while shaving, this thought occurred to me ........

Songs a Pedophile never sings, or words he never wants to hear: 

Bill and Gloria Gathers beautiful hymn, even Elvis sang it

"He Touched Me"

It is a beautiful song and I apologize for this.

Please listen to this and then forgive me.

Now, the Season Starts ...... John is singing

A very humbling experience

As we know, Thanksgiving morning, cold outside, snow on the ground, I'm obviously sitting here at the computer, and Caleb enters the room, sits down near my feet, and gives me his "stare." It's his "C'mon dummy, I want something."

From experience I know he wants to go out for a short walk.

I take off my warm slippers, slip in to my boots, look around for a plastic bag, find his fancy leash thing, pull my hood up, and out we go.

Caleb has an unusual sense of smell and sight. He can see and detect odors that are far away. When he detects an odor on the ground, it takes him many seconds to analyze the source. Some he "remarks" with his own liquid, followed by at least two of those back leg kicking things, he really likes to do them, especially if there is something loose around that he can spread.

After much sniffing, and his signature "sniffing pattern" of rapidly going back and forth on the same spot, till it is just "right," he has a bowel movement. That is when I realize, I am 81, old, cold, standing here in my old hunting boots, sweat pants and my white "hoodie," watching this little black dog, have a bowel movement. And then, when he is done, I jump in to action with the Walmart plastic bag, reach down and pick up this steamy, fresh, "stool" that Caleb, who is now happy and ready to go inside.

Marilyn, my wife, is happy, when we go inside and she sees what I am carrying, "Oh, good, he pooped."

If I hit the lottery, well, no, I guess it would be ludicrous to hire someone just for that. Caleb is just doing his job, he makes me get up off the couch, put on the boots, walk around finding everything, gets me outside walking, bending and stooping, and, well he knows I need some "cardio" .... it's just part of his job. I should just be thankful I can still do it. Keep it up Caleb.

Came the dawn ... Thanksgiving

OK, Thanksgiving morning in Ahia, now, a little before 9. The turkey is in the oven at 325 degrees, about 5 plus hours for that. I did the pies yesterday, getting a ham broth ready for my green beans. I'm getting ready for the family at 3.

Apparently the parade in NY is ready for the cold and the wind, and will proceed as hoped. (someone just entered my computer realm, generally around 9, the keyboard now hesitates and is slow. Thanksgiving best wishes to you guys and gals at NSA, or whoever. Our cars get ransacked about once a week, not by them, locals who need money for the holidays, someone seems concerned about our glove compartment and goes through it often. I am thinking about leaving some mints or something for them. I will admit thought that the gloveboxes are more organized than they used to be ... and you will not believe how slow I am having to type right now. Come on, NSA, take the holiday off)

Back to to the parade, it is windy ... they are explaining about the problem with the winds in NY that could ground the balloons, it is complicated. I just learned that putting something on the stove does not mean it will cook, you have to turn the dial ....

I surrender to my computer partner, you cannot believe what all is happening with this keyboard. That o and a just jumped up to the first line .... and the up back there took seconds to type.

Greetings to all, I will be back on when THEY are off ................................. Oh, one last thought. Years ago, when I was younger, there was a parade in NY, which they televised. Now, it is a TV extravaganza, built around the concept of a parade, and occasionally, they show some of the parade. Tight now they are showing a Broadway parade, like live, no,  ...... and ........... Lady Antebellum (SP?) is going to be appearing, in the studio, of course, throughout the parade, life is good. Nothing is an event any more, everything is a TV show .....

No comment ..............

.....seems like we should do more ....

William Bradford (c.1590 – c.1657) was an English Separatist leader in Leiden, Holland and in Plymouth Colony. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact and served as Plymouth Colony Governor five times covering about thirty years between 1621 and 1657. His journal 'Of Plymouth Plantation' covering the period from 1620 to 1657 in Plymouth Colony is an important historic document.

My middle name is Bradford, and somewhere it is documented that I am a descendant of his. 

We were in Plymouth on one occasions, in a museum which also had a gift shop. I asked, jokingly, if anyone would pay $5 to shake the hand of a descendant of Bradford. I was informed that everyone working in the museum and store was related to him.. 

Reportedly, ONE out of SIX Americans is not properly fed. Some, even working, don't have enough to go round, and are hungry. ALL OVER TV this morning they are cooking gigantic meals, showing us how to cook for tomorrow. One place in New York, run by a Chef, does a million meals a year for the hungry.

Some Billionaires are giving away half of their fortunes. Cooking shows are on TV, 24 hours a day. I'm sure that somewhere, some hungry child is peering into a restaurant window, where people are spending obscene amounts on "upscale" meals. 

Something is wrong. Somewhere people are complaining because their "flight" was delayed. Someone is complaining because they are having a little trouble getting their Denali through the snow, or "John, turn the heat up a little back here, it's cold in this limo, be careful, don't hit that beggar there."

Communism isn't working, Socialism does not seem to work, a Democracy sure as hell does not seem to be working, "Them what's got, gets." 

The good news seems to be that none of the politicians, congress, the president will show one ounce of concern tomorrow, when they are stuffing themselves. Well, not sure if Obama observes the day or not he would be a little uneasy as it won't be halal. (I looked this up, not sure what it means, something about the way it was killed, similar to Kosher, I guess.)

I guess we should all just be thankful for what we have, share if we can, volunteer time and money, if we can, and just thank God each day for letting us live. I thank Him a few times a day for letting me live this long. Each day is a gift, from Him, I guess I should just be thankful and concerned about that.

To those who observe the day, Happy Thanksgiving. Well, wait a minute, what the heck does that mean, Happy Thanksgiving? 

Happy, the meaning ......

: feeling pleasure and enjoyment because of your life, situation, etc.

: showing or causing feelings of pleasure and enjoyment

: pleased or glad about a particular situation, event, etc.

On the TV news, some guy last night at an auction, spent 11.6 million dollars for an old book. Are we a great country, or what?

Have a nice day, today and tomorrow .............................

Thanksgiving Eve in Ahia

JOIN MY NEW COMMUNITY

NOT SURE WHAT IT IS OR DOES

BUT I HAVE ONE

SEE HERE

I just had to post this .....

I am not endorsing or promoting the food, just love that face!

Sandy Hook report offers chilling details about school shooter

So much in the news, they strive to know "why" he did it. As you read this, ALL the clues were there to indicate a troubled mind, and, they did no good. Perhaps the reason he did it was because he had a mother who looked the other way and she could not face reality. She may have been as much to blame, or more, then her son.

NEW YORK — The gunman who massacred 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was obsessed with mass murders and so mentally twisted that his mother planned to move him out of state so he could attend a special school, yet she had him living in a home with firearms and ammunition and gave him money to buy a gun for Christmas.

The information was released Monday in the most detailed account yet of the Dec. 14, 2012, shooting that left 20 first-graders and six school employees dead and galvanized calls nationwide for stricter gun control.

The report from the Connecticut state's attorney in Danbury, Stephen Sedensky III, also gave a chilling account of shooter Adam Lanza's downward mental spiral and of his increasingly antisocial behavior in recent years.

Among other things, it said Lanza, 20, kept a spreadsheet of mass murders, hated to be touched, and did not allow anyone — including his mother, Nancy Lanza — into his bedroom. He covered his bedroom windows with black trash bags, disliked birthdays and holidays, would not let his mother put up a Christmas tree, and made her get rid of a cat because he didn't want it in the house.

As time went by, he only spoke to his mother via email, even though they lived together.

But the 48-page report, a summary of the police investigation that includes 78 photographs of the school and the Lanza home, does not offer a reason for Lanza's rampage or his decision to target the school.

"The obvious question that remains is: Why did the shooter murder 27 people, including 20 children? Unfortunately that question may never be answered," it said.

Thoughts on a snowy morning in Ahia

Morning TV is finally talking, this morning, about the upcoming holidays, oh, yes, I'm sure New York is crowded with shoppers, oh, OK, I imagine that electronics are at the top of the list, I agree, a lot of shopping is done on line, and buying, buying, buying. So that is what the holidays are all about. Buying and selling.

One thing I read was interesting:  "Retailers traditionally operated at a financial loss from January through November, and "Black Friday" indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit, or "in the black". For large retail chains like Walmart, their net income is positive starting from January 1, and Black Friday can boost their year to date net profit from $14 billion to $19 billion."

It looks like weather is going to have something to say about Thanksgiving this year, apparently a storm is moving in. Weather has a way of dominating, anything. Some snow on the cars this morning, not much on the ground though, looks cold. There are even some school closings, I don't remember ever having "school closings" years ago.

I received an email from Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Senator, about the holiday and what he is thankful for. First was our schools and universities in Ohio, then, thousands of service personnel to protect us, then he went on .......  For all our blessings, we know there are challenges. We’re in the midst of rising rates of poverty and income inequality. Last year’s donors to food banks are today’s recipients. It’s that middle class squeeze that we see most acutely during the holidays – with rising energy, food, and shelter costs undermining any sense of financial security. Today more than 1.8 million Ohioans live in poverty. One of six Ohio families doesn’t know from where their next meal will come. Alleviating hunger in America – including hunger for food, work, and a fair shot at providing for loved ones – means eliminating the challenges many working- and middle-class families face. This is a burden we all share and must work together to eliminate. Ohio is blessed to have communities from Dayton to Youngstown that are dedicated to helping those hit the hardest get back on their feet.

What it boils down to, schools, service personnel and those who donate to all of those out of work. Just seems like something is wrong there.

What were the original Pilgrims thankful for .... "Their thankfulness was for the possibilities of religious freedom, taxation with representation, fair hearings before magistrates when charged with crimes, relief from oppressive monarchs and freedom to speak their minds without fear of reprisal. Many of the things taken for granted and rarely mentioned in the thanksgiving prayers of today are what they were thankful for."

OOOOHHHHHHH, the Pilgrims are turning over in their graves ..

The German incident would have made a good movie .....

Yes, I had a Chris Craft on a pond ................

Really, I'm OK. Yes, it's a rather small pond, and, yes, it is a Chris Craft, and, yes, that is me, going round and round on the pond.

Doesn't everyone have a Chris Craft on their farm pond?

Some thought I was losing my mind, some just thought I was nuts.

A friend and his gal rode around the pond with me. He kept saying, "Dooley, this is crazy, this is great, fun, neat, Dooley, you are crazy, this is so much fun, but, you are crazy. Let's go round a few more times."

I had two other boats, an aluminum 12 footer and a fiberglass pram that had been made out at the Owens Corning Fiberglas Tech Center when they were experimenting with their new product, fiberglass reinforced plastics. It was a great fishing boat, very stable.

About where someone is taking this picture was a spot where we did some swimming, there was a fairly shallow area near a spillway, the kids loved to play in the water down there. I would go to the end of the pond, turn around, open her up, get close to the shore, much nearer than I am here, do a sharp left, and the kids loved the waves coming in, and it did kick up a pretty good wave.

At night, I would turn the running lights off, idle about where this photo was taken, and to the right, was the dam, which was our driveway, and went up to the road. I had it times pretty good, I would hear a car, see the lights, shove the throttle all the way forward, run the length of the dam, make a sharp left, go along the bank that you can see, and there was a car, going down a deserted farm road, at night, and looking down to the left, was a boat, running light glowing, the mast on the back, lighted, and that Chris Craft sound, the low rumble. I saw many an owner later on and some related their shock and awe at the experience.

I quit though, one almost lost control, and swerved and was able to stop, but the headlights were right in my eyes. Shortly after that, I pulled it out of the water and was going to refinish her. I don't know why, remember, impulsive. I ended up selling the motor and, well, I'd rather not say what happened. Damned ADD...................

Black Friday

Black Friday is the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, often regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. In recent years, most major retailers have opened extremely early and offered promotional sales to kick off the holiday shopping season, similar to Boxing Day sales in many Commonwealth Nations.

Black Friday is not a federal holiday, but California and some other states observe "The Day After Thanksgiving" as a holiday for state government employees, sometimes in lieu of another federal holiday such as Columbus Day. Many non-retail employees and schools have both Thanksgiving and the day after off, followed by a weekend, thereby increasing the number of potential shoppers. It has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year since 2005, although news reports, which at that time were inaccurate, have described it as the busiest shopping day of the year for a much longer period of time.

The day's name originated in Philadelphia, where it originally was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. Use of the term started before 1961 and began to see broader use outside Philadelphia around 1975. Later an alternative explanation was made: that retailers traditionally operated at a financial loss from January through November, and "Black Friday" indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit, or "in the black". For large retail chains like Walmart, their net income is positive starting from January 1, and Black Friday can boost their year to date net profit from $14 billion to $19 billion.

For many years, it was common for retailers to open at 6:00 a.m., but in the late 2000s many had crept to 5:00 or even 4:00. This was taken to a new extreme in 2011, when several retailers (including Target, Kohl's, Macy's, Best Buy, and Bealls) opened at midnight for the first time. In 2012, Walmart and several other retailers announced that they would open most of their stores at 8:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day (except in states where opening on Thanksgiving is prohibited due to blue laws, such as Massachusetts where they still opened around midnight), prompting calls for a walkout among some workers. Black Friday shopping is known for attracting aggressive crowds, with annual reports of assaults, shootings, and throngs of people trampling on other shoppers in an attempt to get the best deal on a product before supplies run out.

We really are spoiled in this country ....................

One high priced, upscale grocery store ad states, "Why would you buy your lettuce where you buy your TV?" What does that mean? Trying to slam Walmart probably is not going to work. Perhaps their lettuce is less expensive because they make money on selling that TV. My philosophy, if I had been Sam, would have been, sell the produce and the canned goods at cost, to get them in the store, once in, we can make money on all the other products.

We were in a Walmart today, a Monday afternoon, and they were pretty busy. The store is loaded with a variety of products, a lot of them directed as gifts, and many I saw had full carts, a few of them had two carts.

We are a spoiled country. Go in to practically any store, look at the variety, the quantity, it is overwhelming. We are spoiled. We needed to get a ham for Thanksgiving. Many different brands, some sliced, a variety of prices, all reasonable, we got a basketball sized ham, fully cooked, for $15. I looked no farther, had a hard time fitting it in the fridge though.

And, as soon as she rung up the ham, they knew about it a their supply center, it was noted, and when needed, they will receive more of those hams. Walmart has the second largest computer system, second only to the Defense Department.

Miss Emma, a great granddaughter, has a birthday soon,, her Mother suggested a Fisher-Price Little People Disney Princess Songs Palace Play Set.Went to a website, could order it to be delivered to the store, with five options for delivery date. We went to our Walmart, about five blocks away, got one for $26. Other stores were in the 30,40 and 50's, how great is that?

THE STEUBENVILLE RAPE CASE ....

Guilty on all counts.

Two players from a storied Ohio high school football team raped a vulnerable, drunken 16-year-old girl during a series of alcohol-laced parties last August, an Ohio judge ruled Sunday.

Stunned by the verdict, Ma’lik Richmond, 16, and quarterback Trent Mays, 17, broke down weeping uncontrollably in the Steubenville courtroom. But the case is not over yet.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said the court will convene a grand jury next month — an investigative tool sometimes used by the state to compel 16 people who refused to co-operate with police to testify about what happened in the one-time steel town that night.

More indictments could come.

DeWine also appealed to everyone in America to realize that rape is not a problem confined to Steubenville, but “a nationwide problem.”

“What happened here is shocking and appalling. But frankly, what is even more shocking and appalling is that crimes of sexual assault are occurring every Friday night and every Saturday night across this country, in big and small communities,” DeWine said at a news conference.

“We should not tolerate it anymore — as a people and as a country.”

National studies show that one in every five American women experiences rape or attempted rape in her lifetime — and that one in five girls and women who attend college experiences the same thing during their years of study. The trial drew national and international attention because of its sensational story of teens, booze, sport and sexual assault in small-town America.

But DeWine said there will be no closure for the town until he is certain that “no stone has been left unturned in our search for the truth.” The guilty boys apologized both to the victim and her parents Sunday.

This was an example of how "big" athletics has become in acadamia. I am speculating ONLY, that the coach was aware of it and tried to cover it up, "his boys"were just being "boys." Football rules in Steubenville, players can do no wrong. Here, they did, and thankfully, they are going to have to pay for what they did. It would be "fitting" to remove football from the school program. Common decency should be uppermost in the school curriculum and the football coach should nor "rule the roost." I am sure this scenario has happened in the past. I wonder what the football coach there made in comparison to the principal? At OSU, the coach makes more than the president of the university ..... what does that say? Would it not be ironic if they both, while in prison, were held down and raped by some big inmate and his friends ........