Black Friday

As it is every year, black friday is just a crock of sh*t.  None of the stuff that is actually any good or that I actually want is ever for sale.  I bought a new iPod Touch for my music collection - with a "massive" saving of $10.  The only silver lining was that I ordered it from somewhere that I didn't have to pay sales tax.  And I got a new ping pong paddle at a 10% discount.  Though I have contrived to do my back in again, so I don't know when I'll be able to next play (hopefully my back will be better in a few weeks' time, because I'm not sure a long flight is going to do it any favors).  I also want to get a new Chromebook, but none of the ones that I wanted were for sale.  I'll check again on Cyber Monday, but I strongly suspect that it will be same story.  The only ones that I see for sale are older models, ones not highly rated, or the wrong size.  What a swizz.   

Invasion of Privacy

A couple of guys showed up at my door today to ask about buying the property.  Or my neighbor's property, I wasn't really sure.  Either way, I feigned ignorance/stupidity and they went on their way.  But on reflection, I should have told them to piss off.  They actually drove up my driveway to knock on my door.  That is some cheek, and a massive invasion of privacy.  Nosy f*ckers.  It is one thing to walk up to somebody's front door, but quite another to drive up to it.  The more I think about it, the more I get angry about it.  I should have told them, plainly, that nothing was for sale here and to sling their hook.  They were probably just a couple of chancers after a quick flip.  They didn't look as though they were casing my joint, which would be the other reason for going up my driveway.  I actually get mail on an almost weekly basis asking about buying this property - I don't know whether these are the same people sending that, but that looked to be just some junk mail that went out to everyone.  Perhaps not.  Worse, these people might have been looking to buy some land to build something new, and the last thing I want is more construction noise in my vicinity.  There is already some construction going on a little way down the hill from where I am, and the noise carries.  And it's ruined the neighborhood near where I work.

Election Ad

We're still just about a year away from the US presidential election, and we don't yet know who will be the Democratic presidential challenger.  Yet today, whilst spending my Thanksgiving Day binge-watching a load of telly, I encountered my first election ad - and it was maybe for someone you might not expect.  It wasn't for Trump.  It wasn't even for one of the Democrats who has appeared in a debate yet.  It was for someone who entered the race late.  And the ad wasn't so much about the candidate as it was against Trump.  The ad was for Mike Bloomberg.  The guy isn't exactly short of money, so not much of a surprise that he can afford to start airing ads so early.  But I'm not really sure who this ad is for - all I know is that I am already suffering from election fatigue and we still have an awful long way to go.   

Storms

I forgot to mention, it snowed earlier this week.  My location was right in the weather convergence zone that affects our region – so 5 miles north or 5 miles south of my home, the weather was absolutely fine.  Where I was, we had hail, thunder and some snow overnight.  Not enough to settle on the roads – but still, ominous sign for the winter ahead.  Currently, things are a bit more interesting further south on the West Coast:

That storm is going to slam into the Oregon/California border and cause havoc over Thanksgiving (100 mph winds - yikes).  On top of all the bad weather across the rest of the US, unfortunate timing for the busiest travel days of the year.  It is just going to be a cold Thanksgiving for me.

Daemons

Just watching His Dark Materials, and I was wondering what form my daemon would take.  The external manifestation of a person's inner-self - in the form of an animal.  The irony of it, given my current war with them, is that it is probably a mole.  A boring and solitary animal - it seems to fit the bill.

Sofas

My living room set got delivered today.

The good news - they look good, they feel comfortable.

The bad news - I think I bought too many pieces (a 3-seat reclining sofa, a 2-seat reclining loveseat, and a 1-seat rocking recliner) because they were bigger than I thought and don't all easily fit into my room as I hoped.  So I am going to have to give some serious thought as to how to arrange everything.  Also, one of the recliners on the end of my sofa had a bit of a problem and was catching on the frame.  I didn't want to go through the time and effort of getting the sofa replaced, so came up with a nice fix - I bought a metal file today and filed a notch into my sofa frame so that the reclining bit no longer catches.  Ingenious (at least until my sofa frame breaks, but hopefully that won't happen anytime soon!) 

Podcast Recommendation

It's been a long time since I found a podcast that makes me actually laugh out load - but I found one this week.  Gossipmongers.  And it's British.  I find it the audio equivalent of peak Viz humour.  Highly recommended, though caution should be exercised if you're listening to it at work as I did and struggled to contain my laughter in an open work environment - a serious faux pas.