It’s Black Friday, and I’m hiding out in the Starbucks, drinking from a red cup and listening to Christmas music.  Where, where I ask you, has the year gone?

It didn’t take much to drive me to Starbucks this morning.  One look at the parking lot of the strip mall of Lowes, Ross, and Kohl’s was enough for me.  So, coward that I am, have retreated to the welcome confines of the coffee shop while sending out the wife and her sister to fight the shopping battles.  Charge!

I will admit that this is not my favorite time of the year.  Things are just too busy for me, but dinner yesterday was good as was the run along the beach this morning.  A run done pre-coffee if you can believe it, but sometimes you just gotta suck it up and do what needs to be done.

On the Christmas side of things though, I did manage to buy a gift this morning without ever going into a store.  Ebay to the rescue!  Now, that’s my kind of shopping.

For all of you out there braving the crowds this Black Friday, stay safe.  Yeah, probably a little late for that thought, but you know what I mean.  As for me, I may hit a store or two before day’s end.  I doubt I can sit in my fortress of caffeinated solitude all day.  If nothing else, the Christmas music will drive me out.  Did I mention that this is not my favorite time of the year.  I did.  Well the music adds to that sentiment.

Don’t worry though.  We’ll make the most of it.  It will be another great Christmas and before you know it, it will be over and then here all over again.  The things we love, the things we like, and those we don’t come around again and again every year.

The fact of the matter is there are good and bad around us all times of the year and different people like different things, so it all works out in the end.  Someone said once that, “it takes all kinds,” and I guess that’s right.  So have a great day.  If you like me, don’t like the music or the busy going on right now, well, all we have to do is wait.  There’s a change coming right around the corner.