Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving '22 Travelog #7
Near Harrisburg, PA - Fri, 25 Nov 2022, 9am

For Thanksgiving I switched sides of the family I was visiting. Early Thursday morning I left town where my mother, my youngest sister, and her family live, and drove to central Pennsylvania, around Harrisburg. Along the way I stopped at Dulles airport to pick up Hawk, who'd arrived on a red-eye from San Francisco. It was 40-45 minutes to the airport for me, then a bit under 2 hours from there to Harrisburg.

Hawk was ready for a nap when we arrived at her parents' place. She had gotten about 4 hours of sleep on the flight, which is nearly the max possible, but that still wasn't enough. That's okay; we all plan for things like that when taking these red-eye flights. I chatted with my inlaws for a few hours while she slept it off. ...Okay, I napped for about an hour, too. 😅

My brother in law arrived later in the afternoon. Around 3:45 we all headed over to a family friend's for Thanksgiving dinner. MIL and this friend always split holiday cooking/hosting. By "split" I mean they take turns. And by "take turns" I mean they both do it. One hosts Thanksgiving dinner, the other hosts Second Thanksgiving dinner, on Friday. 🤣

Thanksgiving dinner was great. There were 14 people there between our family, their family, and a few additional family friends. The food was delicious— as it always is with MIL and her friend. And we get to do it again tonight!

It's Black Friday and I Don't Care

Thanksgiving '22 Travelog #8
Near Harrisburg, PA - Fri, 25 Nov 2022, 4pm

Today's Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, supposedly the biggest shopping day of the year. I say supposedly because I don't know if it still is. I haven't gone out to a store to see how busy they are. I don't want to go shopping. I've barely even read the voluminous email I've gotten about Deals!, Deals!!, Deals!!! I've just deleted most of it after a quick skim to see what seller it's from. I just don't care. I'm not in the market to buy things, even if they are at lower prices than ever before.

One thing I am in the market for, though, is shares of companies. Like last year on Black Friday I spent the morning shopping in the stock market. This year there's no compelling sale on stocks on Black Friday. Last year news of the new Covid omicron variant broke on Black Friday, causing a small market panic that drove prices down several percent. I picked up a few bargains that day. Today my bargains were limited to a pair trade between two similar stocks where one went up a notch and the other dropped two notches. I sold high, bought low.