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I've been feeling a bit down in the dumps lately and I'm sure I'm not alone in that. Nevertheless, I'm well aware that I have a lot to be thankful for. I'm so grateful not to have to worry about getting back to work, school or whatever the daily grind might entail. I'm glad to be in reasonably good health and to have a stable source of income and standard of living. I'm thankful for family and friends and especially grateful not to have to worry about older family members in long term care homes, though my heart aches for those who are in that situation. And of course, I am thankful for all the health care workers, delivery people, transit workers, grocery workers, volunteers and others who press on with their work and keep life livable for all of us.

And when I woke up this morning, I was very glad that the dream I had just had was not real. In that dream, I had been offered a lift home (from somewhere in the Chinatown area) by a former member of my Toastmasters group - on the back of his motorcycle. I didn't have a helmet on and we were stuck in rush hour traffic somewhere on the Queensway. Some people were getting pulled over and I was sure he would be next. But we did make it to an off-ramp and I asked to be dropped off somewhere. I went into a building which apparently was First Avenue Court and starting looking around for a washroom. Then I woke up.

One common symbol of Thanksgiving is the horn of plenty, or cornucopia. The next release from J.K. Rowling (due some time in November) will be a kind of folkloric kids' book about the fictional town of Cornucopia, featuring drawings by children in various parts of the world, including Canada. Here is the blurb from an independent bookshop, Brome Lake Books, near where Louise Penny lives:

https://bookmanager.com/1178946/?q=h.tviewer&using_sb=status&qsb=keyword&qs=9781338732870

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

On Thursday, our neighbours south of the border gave thanks for all that they had. Then the next day, they dashed out to their local shopping malls in search of more.

I've been a bit bemused at how enthusiastically "Black Friday" sales have been adopted by retailers here in Canada. Maybe it's part of the whole thing of iconic Canadian stores like Hudson's Bay Company being bought out by Americans. Zellers stores are giving way to Target stores. Nordstroms will soon be moving into the retail space vacated by Sears in the Rideau Centre. I guess the idea of "Black Friday" sales was to discourage cross-border shopping - but now you can shop the big American chains without leaving your country - without even leaving your home! Let your fingers do the mousing - the carpal-tunnel syndrome is thrown in for free!

Buy-nothing day, as I understand it, originated some years ago as a protest against the madness and commercialism of Black Friday. Well, I can't honestly claim that I didn't buy anything yesterday - we did go out and get groceries. I CAN, however, truthfully say that I bought nothing on Thursday - a day which, in Canada, is just a regular weekday. I got out for my daily walk, but I didn't set foot in a store or other place that involved spending money. I must admit that this was more by chance than by design, though I HAVE been deliberately avoiding the sorts of places - electronics stores, for example - that typically go in for these one-day, blockbuster, get-people-to-camp-out-all-night events.

To be fair, I think maybe the kickoff to the Christmas shopping season is probably just as early in Canada as in the U.S. - maybe even earlier, somewhere around Remembrance Day. I don't think it's quite as early as CANADIAN Thanksgiving, though Halloween and Christmas decorations often seem to reside cheek by jowl in the aisles of supermarkets and department stores. And the Sears Christmas catalogue usually lands on our doorstep in early September. Does our colder climate and shorter winter days put people in a Christmasy mood sooner? Or does the same phenomenon occur in the southern hemisphere, in places where Christmas is celebrated?