Happy Thanksgiving everybody. It’s a bittersweet holiday for me, personally. On the one hand, it’s always great to get a day off. On the other hand, I have to go and hang out with the in-laws for what will no doubt feel like hours. Usually very tense hours as I watch my wife squirm and look for a way to leave me alone with her parents while she goes and hides somewhere. She just doesn’t seem to have mastered the art of ignoring everything that her parents say (I don’t know why – she’s pretty good at ignoring everything I say).

Me, I just try to snap off the circuit breaker that connects my brain to my ears and do that whole married guy smile and nod thing, as best I can. Fortunately actual responses to the myriad of questions that arise aren’t actually required of me – though because my job is vaguely related to “the computer” I’ll probably be pressed into doing some tech support. Which wouldn’t be an issue if my mother-in-law understood the concept of “one question at a time” (not to mention, I can’t actually look at something while you’re jabbering away over my shoulder) which she really doesn’t. I don’t get halfway through one response before I get 20 other questions.

Then there’s having to convince everybody that I’m not actually kidding when I say I don’t want to eat this, that, or the other thing, or that, yes, I am full and no, I don’t want any more. And I don’t want gravy, or pie, or ice cream, or a shitty Coors Lite – I appreciate your concern, but (especially theses days) no means “no.”

I have no desire to talk politics, either. That’s not a conversation that’s going anywhere good (they don’t get cable tv so they can’t watch Fox News but my mother-in-law is a big Glenn Beck fan – did you know he’s from Everett, WA? Must be something in the water – and my father-in-law was a Nazi, so to the extend that he actually knows what’s going on these days, I’m sure he’s a big Trump fan).

Mostly, I just wanna stay home. Sitting around alone (except for the dogs) on Thanksgiving might sound lonely and depressing, but to me it sounds kind of peaceful.

On the bright side, once tomorrow’s festivities are over, other than being on-call, I’m off until next Tuesday.

Of course sad news this week in that David Cassidy died. We watched the Partridge Family when I was a kid (back in the days of 4 channels, so not a lot of choice) but I can’t say I was a big fan or anything (more of a Cowsills kinda guy I guess), but it’s always sad to see somebody die so young. And by young, I mean anybody within about 20 years of my age – an ever-moving target.

Anyhow, whatever it is you do today, I Hope you have a good one. Rest up, because I know you’ll wanna get out there bright and early for all those Black Friday deals (not that you have to wait until tomorrow, of course, when you can head out to Walmart, Best Buy, Target, and a host of other truly American institutions that don’t give a shit for their employees or the American way of life and will be open today).

Don’t forget – only 32 days (remember when they used the quaint phrase “shopping days” because there were actually days when you couldn’t shop?) until X-mas.