Black Friday

 

Black Friday ...Wherever did they come up with that name for the day after Thanksgiving. I always thought it referred to the infamous stock market crash of 1929, the predecessor to the Great Depression. Oops! That was Black Tuesday. Black Friday referred to the stock market crash of 1873. Now it's a reference to the biggest shopping day in the year in the USA … although for some, that can be depressing in itself. Many retailers do most of their business in November and December and as such, move from being in the “red” to being in the “black” today. Hurray for the retailers!

Seems that we get to blame Philadelphia for popularizing this moniker. Back in the early 1970's, it was dubbed Black Friday by the Philly cops because of all the traffic and pedestrian mayhem caused by the crowds shopping on this day. It's typically a 4-day weekend (except if you work in a store) and everyone takes advantage of it to get a head start on their Christmas shopping. Stores lure you in with outstanding sales, free goodies, early openings and promotions up the wazoo. Where it's allowed, some stores open Thanksgiving evening, now dubbed Grey Thursday. Massachusetts' law forbids opening on the holiday, so retailers settle for opening at 12:01am on Black Friday. Of course, there are those retailers who advertise pre-Black Friday sales. Perhaps they should start in August?

While on the boat, this never mattered much. We don't do any Christmas shopping. But since we're back in the land of milk, honey and major consumerism for the holiday season this year, it's forefront in our minds. Even boat parts go on sale on this day. Lord knows, we ALWAYS need boat parts.

So, do we participate? Well ... yeah! We stood in line at Best Buy at 3am in the cold to buy a Toshiba laptop for $300 a few years ago. We've gotten DVD players for $19 and photo paper for $1. The buying frenzy overtook us though. The prices were sooooo good, we ended up buying things we didn't need.

We won't be heading out too early to buy our boat parts or electronics this year because we can buy on-line instead. You see, Cyber Monday follows Black Friday. People are out and shopping over the post-Thanksgiving weekend, but once they head back to reality on Monday, they've got time for the internet again. That's when cyber sales and shopping kick in … aka Cyber Monday. We'll make our buys then, in time for David to carry them back to Oz in a couple of weeks.

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Unfortunately, I just received a $10 off merchandise coupon from Kohl's in the mail earlier this week. Not $10 off $50, just $10 off anything in the store … even if it costs $10.01. $10 … just barely enough to make me want to get up early to use it. Lin got one, too. Kohls opens at 1am on Black Friday. Guess what we'll be doing?

Signs of Winter

 

Autumn is leaving us rather quickly. We've raked up most of the once vibrant leaves that have fallen and the trees are becoming bare. David has been chopping wood for Lin's fireplace and we see smoke curling from the neighbor's' chimneys on many crisp mornings. The sky tends toward gray instead of blue. Dusk comes in late afternoon instead of late evening. We've dug out our gloves, warm jackets and heavy socks. The screens have been replaced by glass windows. The furnace comes on regularly though I always seem to be cold. Winter's coming … all too soon.

When we were in Vermont recently, we saw lots of woolly bear caterpillars crossing the road. All were mysteriously heading southwest; they prefer the warm evidently. I'm with them. Actually those poor guys freeze solid as a rock over the winter and thaw out in the Spring to become tiger moths. Short lives and most of it frozen. In the meantime, though, they're heading out of town.

Canada geese are honking up a storm. We see their V-shaped flight patterns regularly ... heading south, too.

Evidently some opt to stick around though, because we've seen them ice skating on the local ponds during the winter months. Crazy geese.

Squirrels have been busy here. They chatter away as they scamper up and down trees, mouths full, collecting their winter stores.

There are ads in the newspaper for cords of firewood, coal and plowing services. The barns and silos are full of hay. The cold and snow are sure to be upon us soon. I'm not wishing for a white Christmas.

After having summer Christmases down under for the past few years, I must say that going to the beach for a BBQ beats shoveling snow and freezing my tush off. Definitely time to return to Nine of Cups soon. Summer's coming to Australia. In the meantime, brrrrr!

Apple Picking

It's apple picking time and we couldn't let the season escape without heading to an orchard to pick apples. We usually eat as much as we pick, so it's a good bargain for us. We know of several orchards in the area, but Lin suggested the Nashoba Valley Winery and Orchard. Hmm... apple picking and wine tasting… a stellar combination for a Sunday afternoon and off we went.

The early morning fog burned off by Noon and the sun prevailed for the rest of the day. The orchard was crowded with apple pickers. 'Tis the season. The winery tasting rooms were filled to bursting. Still, we managed to enjoy ourselves. A couple of wine tastings and all was well with the world.

We sampled a Gravenstein dry white wine (pucker up!), an okay chardonnay and a passable pinot gris. The Dry Blueberry and Blueberry Merlot were tolerable, but the St. Croix won the day in the red department. Lin sampled a strawberry rhubarb semi-sweet and the Nashoba Mead. Okay, but not great. The Northern Comfort (their version of cognac) was not quite up to to cognac standards and David drank my Oak-Aged Apple Brandy preferring it to what he ordered. On a whim, I tried the Baerenfang, used 100 years ago by hunters to catch bears. It might have snared the bears, but it certainly didn't do anything for me. We didn't buy any wine to take with us, but we maintained a pleasant glow while apple picking.

Branches were bowed over with the weight of ripe apples. We wondered how some of the branches could support the weight with breaking. McIntosh, Cortland, Mutsu, Golden Delicious and Bramleys were ripe and available for picking. We were obligated, of course, to try one of each before committing to actually picking. At this time of year, standing in this beautiful orchard on a crisp, sunny autumn day, with the smell of apples in the air, sweet and rich, they all tasted good. We picked a half bushel before you could say “McIntosh”

I love apples, but I'm pretty persnickety about which ones I'll eat. I like apples to be hard, crisp and tart. Soft, mealy, sweet … no way. I take a bite out of an apple that's not up to my standards and well … let's just say, David eats a lot of apples he wasn't planning to eat.

We see lots of apple crisp, apple pies, baked apples and just plain old apple eating in our near future, not to mention dark rum and hot cider. It doesn't get much better in the autumn of year.