Of after Thanksgiving and thoughts on shopping mania and a simplier life~~~~

Hello Darklings,

Last Friday morning was like something out of a Sherlock Holmes story, the fog covering the area in a misty fuzzy way, softening the harsh outlines of homes, street lamps and other objects, as if they were in a dream.  The Fog Horns sending out their mournful tunes of warning and yet mystery.

The colors from the leaves of the street trees and my fruit trees in the back yard  were just soft blots of color, even the paths in my garden disappeared into nothingness, and I felt the house was shrouded from the world of hectic and frenzy shopping and we were into a world of  genteel manners as if Mother Nature was saying breathe, relax.

I love mornings like that, it puts everything into the right mood of fire places and cozy chairs and a good book,  but because of the slipperiness of the ground and such we decided to hold off putting up the outside lights and instead decorated the inside of the house for Christmas.  The T-Rex was taken down and stored away before the rains came, I just could not take the chance of his internal workings being damaged.

Later on in the week we’ll purchase the two trees to put up in the house and plan on going to the Dickens Fair this coming weekend.   That is an event I never want to miss.  The children and their mother are coming with Sis and me and we plan on an early start because of traffic and possible rain.  Hopefully my brother can come with us if his brother in law will take care of the twins, they want to go to some sporting event, or watch some games on T.V.    I’ve never seen such divergent differences in taste between all 4 children, but then being different is what makes the world go round.

Thanksgiving was wonderful, good food, good people, good conversation and NO politics, that was my rule.  And plenty of left overs to handout for the next day, well more like almost the entire week.   It was a bountiful feast.

But I think Christmas Eve and Day will be a bit more low key, immediate family and those few friends who have nowhere to go, gifts will be given a few days early to be opened at their homes.  

Mr. and Mrs. Rodgers will be getting together with their children for their gathering.  My friends, their children,  are still dealing with all the paperwork and Insurance about re-building.  They did sign up for the government to clear away their property,  but getting their house rebuilt will be a long process,  I don’t mind my house guests if they have to stay for a long while, they are very nice and are developing their own routine and rhythm to their current surroundings.   So it is working out well.

One thing that both I, my sister and the Rodgers agree on is how horrible this “Black Friday” mania is, I mean is it more important to shop till you drop starting on Thanksgiving than being with one's family?   Whatever happened to having a day of rest and being with family or good friends?

My sister and I prefer to do our shopping on Saturday and rest and relax on Sunday, unless something happens and we have no choice but we have found planning our week for “chores” is best, of course medical/dental appointments, hair appointments, vet visits always have to be squeezed in but that it what Calendars are for. 

I have found on line people, young people who are turning to living in another era as if it were Victorian times or the 30’s, 40’s or 50’s, to the point where (unless it’s a uniform) they dress that way, their homes are decorated that way and most modern things are banished, with the exception of flip phones for emergencies, medical/dental procedures, the computer is banished into an armoire, the flat screen T.V. is put into a vintage T.V. cabinet.    Of course one has to have a modern land line telephone, but those are the few concessions.   Even I have done that, it makes the pace of living so much easier, I’m not locked into having that smart phone stuck to my ear.   And it is far less stressful.

Sis believes eventually there will be a backlash to all this mania shopping and lack of a day of rest, we may not see it but it will eventually happen, she believes.

Interestingly enough Poland has actually voted on phasing out Sunday shopping,   I have copied here an article from USA Today~~~~

FROM USA TODAY

Poland to phase out Sunday shopping by 2020

The Associated Press Published 8:27 a.m. ET Nov. 24, 2017

WARSAW, Poland — Poland's lawmakers on Friday approved a law that will phase out Sunday shopping by the year 2020 despite criticism that it may eliminate thousands of jobs.

Proposed by trade unions that want shop workers to spend more time with their families, the bill got support from the ruling party that adheres to Catholic values. Critics say it would negatively affect Poland's economy, eliminating tens of thousands of jobs, and hurt supermarket chains, which are mostly western.

The lower house, dominated by the ruling party, voted 254 -156 with 23 abstentions to limit Sunday shopping to the first and last Sunday of the month from March 1 until the end of 2018; only on the last Sunday in the month in 2019; and to ban it totally starting in 2020. There will be, however, some exceptions that will allow Sunday shopping before major holidays like Christmas and Easter. Also, online shops and bakeries are to be exempted from the ban.

The bill still needs approval from the Senate and from President Andrzej Duda.

Frankly I can see that, with the exception of emergency services for humans and animals, and of course gasoline stations because some people need to travel a long distance home, and public transportation, and I don’t think it will hurt jobs, because it will create longer hours for those businesses to be open.   In hot areas where the temperature can climb into the 100’s  such stores such as Wal-Mart are open 24 hours with serious air conditioning because it’s far more comfortable to shop at night.   So things can be re-adapted.   

We’ll see how it goes in Poland.  

Later Darklings

Of Black Orchids and Black Friday~~~~

Hello Dear Darklings,

Thanksgiving is almost upon us and we have in my home and with my family a lot to be thankful for.

Sis and I have most of the goodies for the table purchased, friends and family are also bringing other goodies to add, and I have lots of aluminum pans to put in left overs to give to people afterwards.

Our house guests, Mr. & Mrs. Rodgers have settled in nicely, Mr. Rodgers loves taking the dogs for their walks and talking to the neighbors, Mrs. Rodgers has started crocheting comforters, slippers socks, and mittens as gifts.   And they have found places that they enjoy going to.   Mrs. Rodgers said to me that she enjoys the quiet pace of my house, even when I have the Merry Maids come in to do dusting and such and with my part time house keeper Betty who comes in to help with heavy work like the laundry and making beds.

Today it will be getting down the special dish and glass ware as well as the pots and pans used for the holiday dinners.

I have only found a few things Gothicly and I have to credit  the “Dear Darkling” newsletter (www.deardarkling.com) for showing morbid edible candies and Gothic clothing for the toddlers as well as writing materials from pens to notebooks to help you write things grim and dark to make E.A. Poe proud of you.   

So I decided to do a word combination just for fun to see what I could find that’s matches that and is sort of Gothicly,  the most popular combination is “Black Orchid” 

For example there is Black Orchid Denim at blackorchiddenim.com  I’m not in favor of ripped leggings or jeans but some of their tops are very nice for casual wear if one wants to make a statement subtly.

Then there is Tom Ford’s Black Orchid cologne and perfume,  according to its Hype “This is not about an ordinary orchid….a little more strange and rare.”    It’s floral-spicy with patchouli and sandalwood, amber and balsam and hint of incense.

Then there is the Black Orchid Resort in Belize.   According to it’s website  “Located in the heart of Belize on the outskirts of Burrell Boom Village, the Black Orchid Resort is an oasis of modern convenience in an exotic tropical rainforest setting. Just 15 minutes away from the Philip Goldson International Airport in Belize City, the Black Orchid Resort is worlds away with 16 comfortable rooms, 7 luxury suites, & two well-appointed villas.”

See its web site  www.blackorchidresort.com   Trip Advisor gave it 4 ½ stars out of 5.

Then there is ILNP Black Orchid nail polish, a high quality lacquer, cruelty free and vegan with sparkle, you can see it and buy it on Amazon.com

And odd thing is a fish called a Betta, we use to call them “fighting fish” as they don’t seem to get along and can be aggressive to other fish so they need to be in their own but they have developed one called a Black Orchid.

You see where I’m going on this and that’s to not eliminate the actual black orchids that can be found in Belize (it’s national flower),  Madagascar, Ecuador and the Dracula vampira orchid on the slopes of Mount Pichincha in Ecuador as well as Dracula anthracina (the coal-black Dracula), a species of orchid from Colombia.    Many are too rare to have in the U.S.  so that is why I lean towards the deep purple cymbidiums to get my “Drac” fix.

But now we also have that Dreaded Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving shopping frenzy.  My niece Coralline asked me where did that term come from?

Well I can thank   Sarah Pruitt  who wrote an article on November 24, 2015 at www.history.com for her story which I’ll re-print here but also will give you the direct link to it http://www.history.com/news/whats-the-real-history-of-black-friday

Here is Ms. Pruitt’s “What’s the Real History of Black Friday” article:

It makes sense that the term “Black Friday” might refer to the single day of the year when retail companies finally go “into the black” (i.e. make a profit). The day after Thanksgiving is, of course, when crowds of turkey-stuffed shoppers descend on stores all over the country to take advantage of the season’s biggest holiday bargains. But the real story behind Black Friday is a bit more complicated—and darker—than that.

The first recorded use of the term “Black Friday” was applied not to holiday shopping but to financial crisis: specifically, the crash of the U.S. gold market on September 24, 1869. Two notoriously ruthless Wall Street financiers, Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, worked together to buy up as much as they could of the nation’s gold, hoping to drive the price sky-high and sell it for astonishing profits. On that Friday in September, the conspiracy finally unraveled, sending the stock market into free-fall and bankrupting everyone from Wall Street barons to farmers.

The most commonly repeated story behind the post-Thanksgiving shopping-related Black Friday tradition links it to retailers. As the story goes, after an entire year of operating at a loss (“in the red”) stores would supposedly earn a profit (“went into the black”) on the day after Thanksgiving, because holiday shoppers blew so much money on discounted merchandise. Though it’s true that retail companies used to record losses in red and profits in black when doing their accounting, this version of Black Friday’s origin is the officially sanctioned—but inaccurate—story behind the tradition.

In recent years, another myth has surfaced that gives a particularly ugly twist to the tradition, claiming that back in the 1800s Southern plantation owners could buy slaves at a discount on the day after Thanksgiving. Though this version of Black Friday’s roots has understandably led some to call for a boycott of the retail holiday, it has no basis in fact.

The true story behind Black Friday, however, is not as sunny as retailers might have you believe. Back in the 1950s, police in the city of Philadelphia used the term to describe the chaos that ensued on the day after Thanksgiving, when hordes of suburban shoppers and tourists flooded into the city in advance of the big Army-Navy football game held on that Saturday every year. Not only would Philly cops not be able to take the day off, but they would have to work extra-long shifts dealing with the additional crowds and traffic. Shoplifters would also take advantage of the bedlam in stores to make off with merchandise, adding to the law enforcement headache.

By 1961, “Black Friday” had caught on in Philadelphia, to the extent that the city’s merchants and boosters tried unsuccessfully to change it to “Big Friday” in order to remove the negative connotations. The term didn’t spread to the rest of the country until much later, however, and as recently as 1985 it wasn’t in common use nationwide. Sometime in the late 1980s, however, retailers found a way to reinvent Black Friday and turn it into something that reflected positively, rather than negatively, on them and their customers. The result was the “red to black” concept of the holiday mentioned earlier, and the notion that the day after Thanksgiving marked the occasion when America’s stores finally turned a profit. (In fact, stores traditionally see bigger sales on the Saturday before Christmas.)

The Black Friday story stuck, and pretty soon the term’s darker roots in Philadelphia were largely forgotten. Since then, the one-day sales bonanza has morphed into a four-day event, and spawned other “retail holidays” such as Small Business Saturday/Sunday and Cyber Monday. Stores started opening earlier and earlier on that Friday, and now the most dedicated shoppers can head out right after their Thanksgiving meal. According to a pre-holiday survey this year by the National Retail Federation, an estimated 135.8 million Americans definitely plan to shop over the Thanksgiving weekend (58.7 percent of those surveyed), though even more (183.8 million, or 79.6 percent) said they would or might take advantage of the online deals offered on Cyber Monday.

Well for us we will use the Friday after Thanksgiving to put away and straighten up after the Thanksgiving feast and use that day and the weekend to start decorating for Christmas,  YES Dear Darklings we wait until Santa shows up at the end of the Macy’s Day parade.   And there is one thing that we do in my house after the feast when everyone is having their turkey tryptophan slumber I put on “Miracle on 34^th Street”  I’ve often felt it was the perfect transition movie from Thanksgiving to the Christmas season.

Just as a trivia note the Macy’s parade that is shown in the movie is the one from 1946, when it was first televised on those early black and white T.V.’s.

Happy Thanksgiving Darklings

Of Happy Thanksgiving~~~

Hello My Darklings,

I'm up, I could no longer sleep, it was 39 degrees out in my back yard, and yet birds are flying looking for food, although I'm not suppose to venture out until later, the coffee was still perking and not yet done, so I found a nice flat pan and filled it with bird seed,  raided the pantry for walnuts that we use in baking and put that out as well.

Stepping back into my kitchen and being warm I had the pleasure of seeing the birds and squirrels come out and enjoy the feast. 

Earlier this week Doyle took 3 turkeys to a local soup kitchen to help feed the hungry,  we give year around but during the holidays we give more.  When ever I go to the grocery store I make sure to have some paper money to put into the Salvation Army bucket,  in a strange way I consider that good luck.  Mom and Dad always did that, even when Dad was for a time out of work, we gave~~~

Matthew 25: 35-40  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
  

During this Holiday Season and all year round  help those who need help.   And in a more fun way to think of  Thanksgiving I give you these very Happy but Gothic images.

Happy Thanksgiving Darklings!

Of comming down with a nasty cold~~~~

Hello Darklings,

I know I have not posted of late, but I came down with a horrible cold and in went into my chest, given my age and everything (and I refused to be called "Old")  I had to rest, and take medication, stay warm, hardly do anything.   It was so frustrating.

But Sis called my previous care giver to see if she could take care of me, with Doyle being busy with several cases and Sis's work load being heavy.   She couldn't but her daughter Betsy could, the easiest thing was to move me to the downstairs spare bedroom by doing that it avoided a lot of stair climbing and made it easier on Betsy to keep an eye on me, and the dogs and anything that was being done.

I was flattened, as one gets older it is harder to bounce back from something as simple as a cold and I had my pneumonia shot as well, but Betsy who has nurses training said the shot is a good thing in that it prevents things from getting worse.

Worse??!!  I felt like I had been hit with all 18 wheels of a 18 wheel Peterbuilt.   But Betsy and my Doctor said it could have been worse, like hospitalization.   Oh no, not over the holidays.

This is the first time I've been up in days.

But my brother and sister in law are going to have Thanksgiving at their house, and for Sis and I to relax,  they will have it all under control. 

So yes, I think the preparations for Halloween, the court restraining order, taking down the decorations and putting them away may have lowered my immune system.

But we are having Christmas Dinner at my home, but everyone is going to chip in, a sort of pot luck but we'll all know what to bring and I can plan around that.    Betsy being the cautious type told me that I'll have to wait a bit before I get too frisky.  So I'll be good.

So all of you have a Happy and Wonderful Thanksgiving.

Later Darklings

Of Rain, "the Black Cat" and after Thanksgiving thoughts and other thoughts~~~~

Hello Darklings

I woke up to a wet, damp, rainy morning.  Time for a good hot cup of coffee I always say.  

 

I woke up early this morning, just before 7 a.m. and with all the cloud cover it was darkish, I had to turn on a few lights as I made my way down stairs just to not trip over anything.   As the water was heating up I stepped out onto the back porch while the rain had stopped and was astonished at the Silence I heard, you can hear Silence because it’s the absence of sound. 

Oh there was sound, the slow drip, plop of water running off the roof edge and the tips of tree branches, but nothing from the street or freeway hum, no street sounds, not even birds, no dogs barking in the distance, nothing, complete silence and stillness.  That is such a rarity in this busy hustle and bustle age.

 I looked across the fences to some of the neighbors houses, through the bare trees and saw an occasion warm yellow glow of a light in a window, someone was up, either making coffee like myself in the downstairs kitchen  or an upstairs window that told me that either they were going to church or an early morning sale. 

It had a sort of Thomas Kinkade feeling, wet, silent, very cool, with splotches of warm light in a window here and there.  And I breathed in the fresh rain washed air, and enjoyed the dampness around me, my feet warm in thick slippers, geared for cold days and nights.  

The silence was finally broken by the arrival of two very small birds, too large to be finches, not wild canaries, and just a little too small to be sparrows, they might be chickadee’s, and they did a bit of “chit, chit, chittering” between themselves and then in the distance the very muffled roar of the jets of a plane taking off from SFO airport.   The earth and surrounding urban civilization was slowly waking up, and the coffee was ready.

The dogs refused  to do their business, at least for now, “Nos Mummy is tu wets” but they did eventually.   No one, not dog nor human can hold their bladder forever.

Sis and I are not going  today to do grocery shopping, it would be too insane with the shoppers, so we’ll do it tomorrow morning, not that we need much, just a few staples, milk, bread, cold cuts for sandwiches and such.  We had so much left overs from Thanksgiving for the weekend that we are doing good, even with all the food that we gave for people to take home.

And so much that we froze to heat up, I think we're really good for the week, although I think Doyle may get a bit tired of Turkey sandwiches to take to work, even if there is cranberry spread on them.

No, both Sis and I will each do in our respective houses  a few more indoor projects, another load of laundry, more sorting and such.  Then tomorrow I’ll balance the checkbook, do some banking and such so we can gear up to take care of other things later in the week, like paying the property taxes.   And addressing holiday cards, I just remembered I need to put postage stamps on the list. 

Last night we stayed up to watch Svengoolie's presentation of "The Black Cat" 1934 with Karloff and Lugosi, perhaps one of the best Art Deco styled and Goth horror films I've ever watched, Karloff with that sibilant evil lisp and Lugosi giving one of the best monologue performances in the end as his character is dying, it is broken up in a way, and only runs just over an hour, as I understand it the Head Office was concerned about some of the scene's that would have really tied the movie up better but they insisted on having it re-filmed.  But still in the Bright Art Deco sets, that sense of dark evil hanging over it.

I'd have to say it was one of the better Horror films of the early 1930's difficult to re-capture.

Thanksgiving dinner was a success, the tables groaned with good food, good conversation and good family and friends, the younger boys putting olives on their fingers and eating them off, its a good thing I bought several cans of olives because I remember doing that too when I was a child.

Then as the food settled, we settled in the formal parlor with coffee as the Turkey tryptophan took over, and the children fell asleep on the rugs with Weiner Dog and Belladonna nestled among them, as we chatted about this and that, and candles burned in the fire place making a cozy scene.

I thought the Men folk wanted to watch football, the Niner's were playing, but our brother via a text on his cell phone had the score and said its not worth watching them go down in defeat.  After a bit Coralline and her older brother woke up and laid there listening to us adults talk about things, reminiscing at times, while the younger children continued to sleep.

One of our guests asked me why do I dress sort of old-fashion, and why do I keep the house old-fashioned and I explained to them why, and that modern conveniences such as microwave ovens, washers and dryings and computers and cd player are not far away, just hidden, and how I, Sis and Doyle have a tendency to eschew ultra modern trappings for some thing's  and an era that is far simpler, but is no less complex.

Our guest understood in a way because he and his wife said that they felt totally relaxed for the first time in ages, even if we did have some quirky things in the house, but it was a good feeling.

But all good things had to come to an end and as it drew late everyone had to leave but not without some food bundles to take home.  And yet still we had a lot left over.

Doyle being a wise person recorded the 11 p.m. news last night for us to watch this morning as we didn't want to miss watching the late night movie.

So as I listened to it I was dismayed to hear that in Oakland the small locally owned business did not do very well on Small Business Saturday, the demonstrations that turned into riots earlier in the week, scared many people away so that people were afraid to come into Oakland to shop.

The protests did not do our local small business owners any good, and for many the Holidays is when they are going to either make it or not. 

It reminded me of something I just recently read in a Dean Koontz Odd Thomas novel "Deeply Odd" I looked for the statement and I quote it here:

"The wisdom of the most sagacious ancient Greeks, the wisdom of the most perceptive rabbis of ancient Canaan, and all the parables of Christ teach us to believe not in justice, but in truth. 

In a world of rampant lying, where so many lies are used to inflame passions and justify false grievances, the indiscriminate pursuit of justice leads sooner of later to insanity, mass murder, and the ruin of entire civilizations. 

Therefore, those who wish to punish the current and future generations for the inequities of a generation long gone, and who equate justice with revenge, are the most dangerous people in the world."

I think we have had another demonstration of this hunt for alleged "justice" and it satisfies no one, it only separates things further, it does not bring things together.  It only hurts those who are trying to make it in this world, it only harms those who live thousands of miles away  or only 1 mile from the original "flashpoint".

I do not have any answers but I do know that change must come from within, within a community, within a family, within an individual, some people call it and I just recently heard it again, "the broken window" theory, if one window is broken then others think its o.k. to break the other windows until a house, a building, a block and eventually an entire neighborhood is broken.   But if people come together to fix that broken window to turn in the evil doer who broke it, then it turns back the evil that seeks to creep into the neighborhood and into people's souls. 

It's like cancer, most cancers can be cured if caught early enough and gone after aggressively enough,   I should know, I've survived two bought's of cancer because I suspected something and I and my doctor went after it aggressively and I've been cancer free for 10 years. 

Education is the first step, encouraging children to stay in school is the second, helping people become independent is the third and a community working together to achieve that is what it takes. 

The holidays are tough times for many people trying to make it, and I and those I love support those organizations that help those in need.  And that is a good way to give to others, because little things as imperceptible as they may be can reap huge rewards that reach out to millions. 

And we have to start by fixing one broken window.

Later Darklings