Saturday- Tuesday

Its 2:17 pm

    My end of the year blog....and trying to say something worthwhile.

The big news buzzing around the Detroit area is the closing of some Sears and Kmart stores,so far our area is losing 6 of them but there could more to come as Sears has only announced 79 out of the 120 stores that are getting the hook.
  While it is sad....the fact that these stores are closing shouldn't shock anyone. I mean Kmart stores are some of the most outdated,poorly designed and understaffed stores of any major retailer. The stores are dirty,unpainted,haphazardly laid departments and the lack of staff are among the reasons we quit going years ago. Factor is high prices on items you can get cheaper elsewhere and I'm not surprised by the dropping sales figures.
   And while Sears stores are much,much nicer looking...they always seem to have the same outdated look to them. And while the prices are high,you can find some seriously good deals if you take the time to look. The trouble is thats the ONLY time you want to shop there,otherwise you can find better deals elsewhere.
 But what surprised me was not hearing a word about any local Blockbusters that were closing.
We only found this out when we were shopping for a 32 gallon trash can this past week. We pulled in the Aco's Hardware lot and saw the signs that the Blockbuster was having a "store moving sale". I have gotten a ton of my DVDs at Blockbuster when they have a 4 for 20 sale but I haven't been in there in almost 2 years.
Losing a job will do that to one's fun budget. But despite reading about their woes,I hadn't heard anything about stores closings recently.
  As we walked into the store,we saw right away it wasn't a moving sale but a liquidation sale. The signs were all by the same company that closed our Borders in September. The sale must have just started as there wasn't very many bargains on new items.
  But the used tables weren't bad....they had the usual 4 for 20 tables but after looking and having trouble finding 4 decent movies that we could both watch,we decided to head out. Then Lori saw the 2.00 table and we looked over on that one....and saw a lot better selection then the 4 for 20 one.
  We picked out 10 DVDs,8 that we could watch together and 2 horror films that Derek and I will watch alone. We talked to the store manager who had been with the company 17 years and had no idea where he was going.
  The media would have you believe this recession is over....but seeing these stores among others is going to continue for a while yet. Christmas spending may be up compared to a year ago but what pre-recession? Its hard to know what to believe....that we are all doing much better and that the malls are packed or listening to people from Forgotten Harvest,Gleaners and the Salvation Army who said they saw a rise in help needed once again this year.
  As I mentioned before at my volunteer gig with my city's food bank,the need there is also starting to creep up after 2 years of being flat. This is becoming less of a temporary event and more of a way of life.

Its 1:30 pm Tuesday
  Here in the den once again. Pretty stoked that I got my first comment on the new blog. Still no followers but I think that will change once I tell Scorpion I'm on here. I am really liking Blogspot,its very simple to use and it has that old Modblog feel to it.
  Radiation went well again,being forced to examine Lori's diet as eating any crap has led to bouts of running to the bathroom. My lovely wife is very stubborn,I had suggested to tossing out all the junk in the house but she feels that is too drastic and she can handle the temptations well enough. All I can say is this,Thursday is trash day and my trash can will be getting quite a load of crap we BOTH to get rid of!
 Why suffer when one doesn't have to,right? So I'm going to take the coward's way out and wait til she goes to work before I launch Operation: Clean House (sorry,Matt Iseman) on Thursday.
  We supposed to see Dr. Eisberg again tomorrow,we just saw him Friday and quite honestly,I don't see the point of seeing him at all unless something is going on. A weekly meeting is pretty pointless since he can't tell us anything about radiation affecting her tumors. But we'll go anyways.
  We are supposed to finally head to Detroit tomorrow to the DIA to see the Rembrandt exhibit of Jesus. We want to go last week but we thought it would to crowded with the Christmas throngs so we pushed it back..but now its like 3 degrees outside (with the wind chill factored in) so I don't know if its going to happen. I really hope we go because I think a activity will bolster our morale a lot.
  I'm about finished with Gen. Ricardo Sanchez's "Wiser In Battle" which I started last year,misplaced it and found it again in a cupboard. Its a extraordinary read and one of the best books I have read in regards to military history. Normally when I finish a book,I give it away to either a neighbor or a charity. But my pops has asked to read it so I'm sending that and "Scorpion Down" about a US submarine that was sunk by the Russians  in the 60s to him.
  So I will end this entry right here.

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