Bah Humbug to Black Friday shopping

I think I'm in the minority of people who choose to say no to Black Friday shopping and just sleep in. This year some stores (Walmart, Toys R Us, Target and others) opened Thanksgiving evening. And the people came. Not only did they show up, some of them started camping out in front of the stores on Tuesday! One couple had a young child with them. So they were going to stay out overnight for several days and spend their Thanksgiving in a tent!

Nope. Not me. A sale is never as important as spending time with my family on Thanksgiving.

You know what will happen now, don't you? The stores will declare that the customers loved this new opening time, are willing to come and shop and so they'd probably come out even earlier. Pretty soon we'll have people rushing out to shop between the turkey and the pumpkin pie. Or ... they'll skip it all together and just camp out like that couple with the child did. I'd love to hear this kid's memories of Thanksgiving. Oh, yes, we spent the week camping and shivering. Then Dad would go to Wawa and bring us back Gobblers (turkey, stuffing, gravy & cranberry sauce either in a bowl or in a sandwich). Then the store would open and we'd have a race to see who got the most the fastest. And one year, I even got pepper sprayed in the face!

Yep, this year a woman brought pepper spray into Walmart with her. She was determined to move all those cattle, I mean, customers out of her way so she could get everything on her list. She pepper sprayed about two dozen people right in the face, got her stuff, went to the check-out line, paid and left. Okay, so you know there were people who saw this but no one stopped her. Walmart has employees on the floor. I know they would much rather have been with their families but where were they? Did no one see this woman? I'm willing to grant that the cashiers didn't see her commit assault because they were probably very busy checking out all the other shoppers. So this woman assaulted two dozen shoppers and got away with it.

You know, this may start an ugly trend when shoppers want to get other shoppers out of the way. Thursday it was pepper spray. What will it be next time?

Rich and I went out on the first Black Friday event I can remember in 1999 or 2000. We were up at 3 or 4 in the morning and it was cold. We had to bring the kids with us because we had no babysitter. That was the first turn-off, looking at those poor, sleepy, shivering kids. Rich blasted the heat and stayed in the car with the kids while I went from store to store and did the shopping. We got some good deals, it's true, but many items were "bait and switch" to get you to spend more. That was the only time I went Black Friday shopping. I didn't think the bargains were so great that I'd drag my kids out of a sound sleep and put them in a cold car. There's no way I wanted to be getting up that early either!

About all those bargains I saw people carting away, I wondered how much of it was truly Christmas presents and how much I-want-it-for-myself gifts. I read a short article somewhere about the large amount of money people spend on self-gifting. I mean, who's getting that 55" flat screen TV? Or that new iPod or iPad?

I don't want other people's selfishness and stores' greed dictating when I'm going to shop. There will be no Black Friday or Small Business Saturday or Cyber Monday for me. I have a budget and a list I'm working with and will go in my own time. I may not save a ton of money but I think I'll have fun choosing gifts for everyone.

First aid for a baby bird and other stuff

What do you do when a baby bird flies into your window and crashes to the ground? TB picked the poor little guy up and cradled it in his hands. We didn't know how badly the little guy was hurt and hoped it was just stunned. I found a box and we put a little water, birdseed, and some leaves into the box. TB gently put the bird down and it just did not want to let go of his finger, poor little thing!

We had to go out for a doctor's appointment. When we got back, we checked the box and it was empty. It looks like our little patient was just stunned and needed to rest before flying away! :)

We went to Good Will the other day for sheets. We were hoping to avoid buying new queen sheets just for this craft show. Good Will has everything and is a godsend for people in need. I like shopping there and don't mind the inconvenience of going through each piece of clothing to find my size. It's worth it! They also have everything from socks to bedroom sets and more. Anyway, we didn't find queen size sheets but we did find a set of three. I think they're full size but can be pieced together to make the size we need. It cost us only $6.99!

TB's been working almost around the clock to get ready for the craft show. I took a couple of pictures of the smaller items he's made and will bring.

My favorite is the mouse with cheese. TB took better pictures of his creations because he used a white backdrop. I plan on getting more pictures of the other projects the day of the craft show.

Yet again, I will need to call Medicare. TB and I want to compare health plans and hopefully go with one that has vision and dental. There are two in our area and when I discussed them with a Medicare agent named Jose they both seemed pretty good. He told me the monthly premium would be $84 for one and $89 for the other. I got a comparison report on those two companies from Medicare and was completely confused by the price breakdown. There were about a dozen breakdowns in different categories. Was I supposed to add them up? The report said the monthly premiums would be about $115 a month. What happened to the costs Jose gave me? So that is what I need to ask Medicare. What is the *real* monthly premium?

After that, we need to figure out if our doctors participate. In some cases, like with Dr. Greenbaum our bariatric surgeon, we're not going to want to switch to a stranger. Next, we have to figure out the cost of co-pays. Right now, we have no co-pay. If we switched, we'd save around $200 a month (I think) but then we'd have to figure how many times we see a specialist in a month. The specialist co-pay is $25 or $35. I think I would need a specialist once a month as long as I'm healthy. Switching might be a good option for me if it means I can get dental and vision.

Today I'm calling our doctors to see if they participate in either of these two plans. It's especially important for TB that they do!

This week I'll be thinking about whether I want to push off PTSD therapy to the new year. Susan, my therapist, insists that digging around in all these memories is supposed to dredge up all these feelings and reactions. That I've not reacted with strong emotion nor cried tells her that I'm resisting and using my defenses to stay away from painful memories.

I'm sure she's right because most of the painful stuff either feels like it's in a block of ice in the freezer or in a box stuffed into the back of a closet.

Well. Maybe what I should decide is whether it's worth trying to tackle all that PTSD stuff period. It took me over 50 years to build these walls and defenses and I don't think much will change in a 12 week program. So, I'm thinking...

And while I'm thinking, I've decided I like the Black Friday movement to boycott all but the independent businesses and stores for Christmas shopping. Big name brand stores make tons of money and don't treat their employees well. I suppose the little independents treat their employees similarly which makes me mad but I think I'd rather support them than the big chain stores who could afford to behave better toward their workers. Maybe what I'll do is just boycott everybody and make my own gifts!

On Facebook, I share pictures that resonate with me. Today there was one that pissed me off. It listed the outrageous salaries the president and members of congress earn *for the rest of their lives* and then lists the average social security salary of a senior as $12,000. And it's some of these senators and congresspersons who want to mess with social security and medicare. You'd never see them say anything about reducing *their* forever salaries!