A bright Black Friday

  I hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving day.  My son and I always spend it with some friends who invite a group of international students from Western Michigan University.  It becomes an interesting day. Most of the students have no place to go on this holiday and, as one put it, would be sitting in their rooms eating trail mix and doing laundry.  This year we had people from China, Japan, India, Nepal, Lybia, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.  It's an amazing afternoon where culture transcends politics and religion, as I told one of the women from China, "people are the same wherever they were born, some just talk funny." So we had a pot luck with dishes from around the world centered by the iconic American turkey.   My son is rather aggressive when he sees a turkey.  He thinks of it as a failed dinosaur breed:  "You may have been a raptor in your day, but you're my bitch today!"

     We had a wonderful prelim for Black Friday.  Some people suggested getting a Black Friday ride together but it didn't happen.  I went out to enjoy a beautiful, and brisk afternoon. 

The MUP's were quite inviting since there was traffic everywhere else.  One could actually get up on the pedals and ride for fun while the masses huddled in the malls.  No  multi-taskers walking their dogs, strolling their babies while jogwalking, listening to their ipods and texting former schoolmates; it's hunting season, the deer, with their good sense, were elsewhere.   It was a serene afternoon.
    On the way back I decided to run past the mall to witness the madness over coffee as I warmed.

I laughed, smugly rode past the rows and rows and rows and rows of cars to the bike rack near the door.  I thought to myself, "those fools" just don't get it.  I swaggered through the doors with a renewed sense of superiority...until I saw the queue at the coffee shop.
Oh, there were people in those cars, and they all went inside, together. Now I get it!
      I turned tail to run and on my way from the parking lot and through the adjacent commercial areas I realized to my horror that Rob Ford may have been right.

It is like swimming with sharks!