A few Thanksgiving leftovers...

Decent run this morning, given my, ahem, very full belly from yesterday's feast (and also the 20 or so degree temps this am, coupled w/ gusty winds making it feel about 5!) Actually, I didn't pig out too badly yesterday- even as, yes, I cooked our Thanksgiving meal! ;) It was a nice day, I enjoyed it, I hope everyone else who celebrated Thanksgiving had a similarly enjoyable one...

I've never understood the whole mindset behind the "Black Friday" shopping thing. Why would anyone possibly want to shop today? Do they think that if they don't buy gifts TODAY! RIGHT NOW! that the stores won't ever have anything in stock ever again, or at least until March?! I can see simply window-shopping, browsing, just to begin to get into the spirit of the holidays, but to try to shop with the maddening crowds, harried sales clerks, screaming children, screaming adults...are any bargains really worth that aggravation?...not my idea of fun, anyway...

I seldom make any effort to see first run movies in the cinema- I often just don't have the time, and unless I'm going with someone, it's just as easy to wait until a flick comes out on disc and watch it at home. But one current release I'd like to try to take in is Walk The Line , the Johnny Cash biopic. It's received pretty good reviews, plus I've just always been a fan of the Man In Black...Once again the football world was subjected to a Detroit Lions Thanksgiving snoozefest (sorry Dee, and any other Leo fans reading this!)...

24-0...Sharon sucks.

"Because you're mine/I walk the line..."

A few stray flurries as I got in my 6 miles this am (and what were YOU doing @ 5:30 this morning, hmmm...?)

Did you hear about the recall of Butterball turkeys?
They forgot to butter the balls! Badda-bing! (Yes, my favorite 4th grade Thanksgiving joke!)

I have a few other things I want to comment on soon, but for now, I just hope any/every one reading this has an enjoyable Thanksgiving tomorrow (here in the US anyway.) Thanksgiving is- perhaps- my favorite holiday, in some ways moreso than even Christmas, just a great family/food/football day! I have a few- actually, several- friends, people whom I care about, who are going thru a bit of a rough stretch of late, you know who you are. I have, we all have, our dilemmas, but I wish there were something I could do, more than simply offering support and empathy, for their difficulties. Tho' it is often easier, and just as often accurate, to be mindful of the things were are either lacking, missing, or not finding in our lives, most of us, no matter our difficulties and dilemmas, can also find some things to be thankful for, minor as they may sometimes seem.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Much of this captures how I've been feeling of late...

"Against The Wind"
It seems like yesterday
But it was long ago
Janey was lovely, she was the queen of my nights
There in the darkness with the radio playing low.
And the secrets that we shared
The mountains that we moved
Caught like a wildfire out of control
'Til there was nothing left to burn and nothing left to prove.

And I remember what she said to me
How she swore that it never would end
I remember how she held me oh-so-tight
Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then.

Against the wind
We were running against the wind
We were young and strong, we were running
Against the wind.

And the years rolled slowly past
And I found myself alone
Surrounded by strangers I thought were my friends
I found myself further and further from my home.
And I guess I lost my way
There were oh-so-many roads
I was living to run and running to live
Never worrying about paying or even how much I owed.
Moving eight miles a minute for most of the time
Breaking all of the rules that would bend
I began to find myself searching
Searching for shelter again and again.

Against the wind
A little something against the wind
I found myself seeking shelter against the wind.

Well those drifter's days are past me now
I've got so much more to think about
Deadlines and commitments
What to leave in, what to leave out.

Against the wind
I'm still running against the wind
Well I'm older now and still running
Against the wind
Against the wind.

Apparently my previous comment re. Matthew McConaughey did not go unnoticed...People's 2005 Sexiest Man Alive :)

Random thoughts while sipping on a Tetley's Ale (Yorkshire's Finest Pub Ale!) on a Sunday evening...

To me, few things smell nicer than the scent of dried fallen autumn leaves on a sunny fall day...fall was- and is- my favorite time of year, there is no nicer time to be in New England, and that scent, and the sound of them crunching underfoot, always brings me back to my happiest days...kinda sappy I know, but hey...

My Pats won a nail-biter today over the Dolphins...things are going to be a struggle this season for them; too many key injuries, a difficult schedule, the two-time defending Super Bowl Champs being the target game on everyone's schedule...but when I think back on how pathetic, for how many seasons, the Patriots were, the Patsies of old, a struggling season this year? I'll take it!

Is there a more quintessentially 70's song than The Eagles' Hotel California?...Why anyone would make stuffed peppers with anything other than ground lamb is beyond me...Sometimes I can be too tough on people...sometimes...it is something I need to work on...Too many people, across the spectrum, spend too much time trying to run other peoples' lives...There is no funnier comedian than George Carlin...Reading is under-rated...and most television is vastly over-rated...Matthew McConaughey is one attractive man...and Elisabeth Shue is one under-rated- and under-utilized- actress...I recently found out an old acquaintance with whom I had lost touch underwent quintuple! by-pass surgery earlier this year...is doin' much better now...but stay off those smokes, you!...And speaking of smokes, or at least, smoke, or soot...I had one friend whose furnace blew up last week, spewed soot throughout their entire home, everything hadda be cleaned...and you think you had a bad week...

"You can check out any time you like/But you can never leave..."

Worth remembering...

It Is The Soldier
It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.
And it is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves under the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag.
- Fr. Denis O'Brian, U.S.M.C.

Don't forget- thank a vet.