(AF) A Thanksgiving Circus - part 3

The evening is winding down and everyone is saying their good-byes, well, to those they are speaking to, anyway. Overall, it was a pretty nice, enjoyable Thanksgiving and, in the end, I was glad I went: however, I do wish that I could figure out how to get a few of them to give proper Thanks and Honor to the day. All the food was wonderful! The turkey and the pheasant ended up being pretty dry, but they tasted really good. But oh, that ham Son 1 smoked! That ham was absolutely perfect! It had just the right amount of smokey flavor to it, not too much, yet it was still so tender and moist. It is still tender and moist even 4 days later, though there isn't much left, now.  Host had special made me a pumpkin pie with unrefined sugar and a pecan pie where she had ground up the nuts finely so that I could still enjoy one, God love her! (most of my bottom teeth, and several of my upper molars are all gone, so chewing nuts is almost impossible)  We were blessed with such an array of food that it just wasn't possible to try it all.

Now for the wild part ... early 'Black Friday' shopping, eek! When my kids were all a little younger, we all gathered and went shopping together, then when they were all driving, we divided up amongst stores with our lists in hand, keeping in touch via cell phone. But once again, just as last year, I was on my own. There really wasn't too much this year that I thought was worth going for. Usually I pick up what ever new little appliances I have been needing (I try to keep a list going all year and wait for this sale), but there weren't even very many of those in the ads like there usually are, and of the couple listed, I didn't need. Of course, I am broker than broke this year and can't just shop for the fun of it, but the few things I had been needing, I had been waiting for Black Friday to get so that I could hopefully get a really good price on.

This year was different. It should have been called "Stuffed Thursday" shopping. That main sale that I always go to, the one that had the majority of the things I was needing (Walmart), started at 10pm on Thanksgiving this year, instead of 5am on Friday. Usually, I absolutely refuse to go shopping on Thanksgiving. It just doesn't seem right, but I just couldn't let go of the savings this year on the items I needed. So after the last few guests left, I hung around at Host's house a bit longer, ate some more dessert, made a couple more "Happy Thanksgiving" calls, got the Fur Ball settled in on a blanket (this time, he just wasn't going with me), then left a little after 9:00 for the madness at Walmart. (It was too much driving to drive back home, then back into town for the brief period between everyone leaving and going shopping).

I headed out and my car was acting up from the start. The windows were all foggy, inside and out to the point of dripping on the inside, my poor old car doesn't idle without trying to die, I was having a hard time getting my windows to clear so I could see, and time was ticking. I tried wiping them with a towel, but there was this odd, thin film plastered to the inside of my windshield that just seemed to smear everywhere. I am so afraid my heater core may be going out, but that is another story. I ended up having to pull over, crank up my defrosters and idle the car, which finally mostly cleared the windows, but that car really protested! Poor thing just doesn't have enough power to run so many things all at once (engine, lights, defrosters).

Me and my car chug-a-lugged, coughed and lurched all the way to Walmart, foot on break and gas to keep it running every time we hit a stop sign or stop light, and finally made it right at 10pm. Oh, my gosh!!! I had never seen so many cars at Walmart, including all of my Black Friday shopping days! There was a very slow stream of traffic, bumper to bumper, winding up and down all of the parking rows. People were parked EVERYWHERE! Every single parking spot on the lot was filled. Cars were snugly parked, bumper to bumper, up against every inch of curb on the site (I am including the gas station area, too), and, get this, every inch of grass on the property had cars tightly parked on it! People had even jumped the curbs to park in the medians. I never saw anything like it!  And I have been to a lot of BIG sales over the years, ha, ha. But I was determined I was going to find me a spot to park. I followed along with the flow of traffic, riding my break and gas (ouch!), my car loudly protesting the idling speed. At one point it died, but I managed to veer off a little so cars could get around me. I had to let it set a little (people were not happy with me) so I could start it again. I got it started, went a few feet, spied a parking space on my side (someone had just pulled out), but before I could inch a little further, someone from the other lane whipped in front of me and swiped it ... darn it!

I was giving thought to just going on home but there were a couple of items that I really, REALLY needed to get for business purposes, they just hadn't been affordable any other way, I had been waiting for 2 years for a price I could handle while at the same time I had a few dollars in my pocket (a hard combination to come by), and now was THE time to get them. So I continued on, car badly coughing, choking and protesting, finally spied a parking space just as I passed it, and I quickly backed up into it before someone else spied it. I stopped, turned the engine off, and large clouds of smoke billowed out from under the hood (no, it wasn't registering that it was hot). I thought, "Well, looks like I'm here for awhile, now."

to be continued . . . . . . . . . .