I have never shopped Black Friday sales in the morning or afternoon. I wouldn't even go to a supermarket until later in the afternoon after the whole shopping frenzy thing ended. Sometimes it's safe to venture out to local strip malls/small shopping centers or individual stores like the Home Depot or Kohl's by evening, but avoid the big malls entirely. This is the season to completely avoid the large malls every weekend and only venture to one in the morning or afternoon in the middle of the week.

It's sunny with winds worse than yesterday. It's in the upper 30s heading to the low 40s but the harsh winds will give us wind chills feeling like the 30s all day. The heat cranked last night to keep the house warm and now I need to add some more water to the boiler. The winds could carry some of the lake effect snow down here so we may have flurries this afternoon or evening. This is not the day to walk down to Walgreens. I'll have to squeeze every last bit of skin ointment from the tube I have and pick up the refill tomorrow afternoon when the winds die down.

This morning I woke up to the sound of commercial leaf blowers with the local landscaping services working on people's yards near us. Now I hear more of them further away in the neighborhood.

I pulled out my flannel sheets yesterday and put a set on the bed. I also pulled out my thick fleece bathrobe, one sherpa lined jacket and several thicker fleece and knit jackets. My early autumn/late spring cardigans will have to go into my laundry bag to wash and pack away until April. Meteorological winter starts Monday and we already have our juncos down from New England and Canada who spend the winter with us in our yards. As long as the winter weather doesn't get too bitter or too stormy they'll stay with us and won't head further south.

I never did order the groceries yesterday so I will put in an order today to be delivered tomorrow. I'm expecting my Kohl's package to arrive this afternoon.