(Cyber) Monday Musings...

Welcome to the brand new month...the last of 2014, and all the "stuff" that goes along with it, not the least of which is included in today's post title.
We'll hit on that in a few, but first, let's see what the Hoosierland weather has for us.
It's not going to be like this past weekend, with temps (today) dropping thirty degrees from previous highs over the last 48 hours.
Seems like we're going to have some sunshine as well...not that bad.
In fact, the high TODAY was around midnight (44) and will continue to drop all day until we reach the freezing mark...there it will stay.
(until tonight when it drops into the 20s)
In the meantime, let's get a nice, soothing warm cup of fortitude poured as we see what else is happening.
*** First out of the stable is our salute to all the things going on THIS month (other than sales and Christmas)
Monthly Events, Holidays

Awareness Month of Awareness Months Month
World Aids Month
Bingo’s Birthday Month
National Drunk; Drugged Driving (3D) Prevention Month
National Write A Business Plan Month
National Tie Month
Operation Santa Paws (1-24)
Quince and Watermelon Month
Root Vegetables and Exotic Fruits Month
Safe Toys and Gifts Month
Spiritual Literacy Month
Take a New Year’s Resolution to Stop Smoking (TANYRSS) (1217 – 2/5)
Tomato and Winter Squash Month
Universal Human Rights Month
Worldwide Food Service Safety Month
Weekly Holidays, Events

Clerc-Gallaudet Week: 1-7 (First Week)
Cookie Cutter Week: 1-7
National Handwashing Awareness Week: 1-7 Link (First Week)
Recipe Greetings For The Holidays Week: 7-13 (First Full Week)
Tolerance Week: 1-7
Human Rights Week: 10-17
Halcyon Days: 14-28 (Always 7 days before and 7 days after the Winter Solstice)
Christmas Bird Count Week: 14-1/5
Gluten-free Baking Week: 14-20 (Week Before Christmas)
Posadas: 16-24
Saturnalia: 17-23
It’s About Time Week: 25-31
Kwanzaa: 26-1/1
--And that brings us to TODAY...
December 1 - 
--Today is the first day of ADVENT.

Light a candle in the darkness.

--It's also NATIONAL PIE DAY (and to me, damn near ANY day is a good one for pie)

Sing along - you know the words...

And in some universes, it's a WONDERFUL day for pie.
--It's WORLD AIDS DAY...so render some AID to a needy person...
Wha...? Huh?

That's NOT what it means...?
Oh, it's the OTHER one...got it.
*** And (...cue The Empire Strikes Back theme...), it's CYBER MONDAY...the best (read worst) day of the year to shop....online, that is.

Funny, I don't have THAT key...

For many this is a good thing...for others, not so much.
Considering the LACK of retail on the SOUTH side of Fort Wayne (Walmart is NOT the alpha and omega of shopping, sorry. folks) taking to online shopping is more a necessity than a passing or seasonal fancy.
I mean, shopping online DOES have it's advantages...like not being caught in the midst of a robbery, or having to deal with people who can't park a vehicle to save their miserable lives, and the rudeness of "fellow" shoppers.
Store personnel must be on Darvon, because they are the friendliest of the lot (from what I've encountered, anyway)

Wifey and I took to Menards to grab some items (Friday), and WOW, was that place CROWDED...never seen that parking lot SO damn filled.
When inside, all you seemed to spot were people hunting for the sale flyer bargains...while trying to push a cart...when they weren't on their damn cell phones.
Can you morons PLEASE FOCUS on the immediate task-at-hand?

We were in and out in less than 20 minutes, and that's because we had to wait in the checkout line for a few.
It's called KNOW what you want, and then leave...simple, huh?
If more people had SOME sort of shopping "plan", it wouldn't be NEAR as bad as it actually is.

So they don't HAVE to?

Adding insult to injury, all the "locals" get their EBT cards "recharged", and we know what that means...
(while all those who are NOT gaming the system are deciding how best to make THEIR properly-deserved government money last all damn month...no easy feat in THIS economy).
I know that after Dad passed, making ends meet for Mom became her primary objective, so I can fully understand how those who are disabled or elderly have to endure.
Anyway...on to better thoughts, hmm?
-- I did find out that SEARS can have us a 2014 holiday bear in 2-4 days (ordering through K-Mart website), so that might work out well enough, as Wifey is going up to the mall this weekend, and she can get the prepaid bear.

We found her a GOOD home (crosses fingers).

Not the best, cheapest, or easiest way to do things, but when K-Mart up and leaves your city altogether, what else is there to do?
*** And since this is Cyber Monday, what better time to have some foreign hacker break into some server HERE?
I'm not trying to be a wet blanket on this, but that would make sense, so retailers need to be on their "A" game.
*** Last back to the station house...the Ferguson "flap" keeps getting more ridiculous by the day...more rioting, more wanton destruction, and sooner or later, you're going to hear SOME minority leftist proclaim "look at the state of our community...we're poor, with no jobs, and the place looks a wreck"...

Looks more like the Middle East than America.

Well, who the hell caused it?
Was it (former) Officer Darren Wilson? Didn't see him around tossing ONE damn Molotov. And he didn't try to roll or burn ONE damn police cruiser.
YOU people caused this devastation...and were I the governor and/or the mayor, I'd tell them all straight-away:
 "...and YOU can clean all this mess the hell up, too!"

They're NOT "helping to clean up".

What you see here in Ferguson is going to be shoved down peoples' throats as "the new normal"...whenever a NON-black officer takes the life of a BLACK person (purely in the line-of-duty)...expect anarchy and chaos...
--And there happens  to be a man of another ethnicity (what we used to call a street-corner preacher), HALF my age, who feels the SAME way I do..one who can see the truth amid the lies...and tells it like it REALLY is - one Johnathan Gentry:

Honest to God, I wished HE lived across the street from us. I would be his friend in a heartbeat.
Reminds me of the friends I had way back in the 1960s.
He's got the righteous indignation gig covered!
The weird part, is that ALL of the goings-on (with these protests) will be portrayed as a means to push a civil rights and race issue, when it is not, nor ever has been.

NO justice - NO peace is the mantra...but WHOSE JUSTICE will it become anyway?
Certainly not the justice found in all those LAW BOOKS that civilized men and women in America follow, that's for sure.
Mob justice would be a more apt description....and to what end?
Another form of "reparations"?

Can't call it civil disobedience...it's CRIMINAL ACTIVITY...plain and simple.
And THAT needs to be punished ASAP, rather than let it simmer, as it has been.
Our laws were created for the LAW-LESS, and not for the lawful, how's that?
And, according to even our "fearless" whiner-in-chief, "we are a nation of LAWS".
Then maybe we need to make them apply to EVERYONE, regardless of race, creed, ethnicity sexual preference, or religion.
That's the way we USED to so it...and I recall that worked pretty damn well.
It's not time to "reinvent" the wheel as it were when pertaining to laws...just time to take that wheel out of storage , blow the dust off and get it put on the wagon, so we can move FORWARD.

Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay SAFE out there, America.