grey thursday and a very black friday

Which brings us to Saturday.  It's still very cold and snowy here.  But because of the cold, it's not as slippery outside as it was on Thanksgiving.  I went running outside this morning where I got to test out my "mid-zero" tights (whatever that means) that I bought on sale last spring.  OH, they were warm and comfy!

Yesterday was a very bad day here.  A man went shoot-em-up at the local Planned Parenthood.  There was a  nearly 5-hour standoff before he eventually surrendered.  In the meantime, he killed 3 people, including a policeman from the university.   Several others are injured, but are thankfully in good condition and expected to recover fully.

We still don't  know the shooter's motives.  Because it was at Planned Parenthood, the speculation is that he's an anti-abortion zealot, but who knows.  Of course this remains the top of the local news.  I've got the local police, the university, and some local news stations on my facebook feed, so it's sadly repetitive.  The officer who was killed looks very familiar and I know I've seen him on campus, but didn't know him personally.  The campus police office is where we register bicycles, and they are a friendly and active presence at bike jam.  He leaves a wife and two young kids.

We were mostly just homebodies yesterday as the snow has been continually falling since Thursday and temperatures were in the teens.  It looks the same outside right now, only there's more snow on the ground.  I'm pretty sure Meego would've had three snowdays in a  row if school was in session.  We don't  make it a point to go shopping on black Friday.

We did, however, continue our "tradition" from last year by hitting the Best Buy on Thanksgiving.  But I stand by word that we are not much into shopping in general.  There's a Best Buy about a mile from our house, and we'd been holed up inside all day, so a walk was needed.  Might as well stretch our legs and end up at Best Buy to look at people.  I didn't even bring my wallet.

It was actually a couple of hours after they'd opened their doors, so it wasn't crazy.  The snow and ice outside showed many tracks in the "corral" and around the port-o-potties, so there was the suggestion of people actually camped out.  I did rather enjoy the people-watching.  No one was rude or annoying.

Chaco found a few accessory bargains for his computer.  Okay, maybe he was in it for the shopping...

We did do the more wholesome things too - played some board games and cards.  Yay, I didn't lose at everything!  Okay, I lost at the board game but managed to hold my own at cards.

So yesterday's events really put a downer on the holiday week.  We just had a guy, about a month ago, walk a downtown street and kill three random people before he himself was killed by the police.  I don't understand and have no words, but we've always got blessings to count too.

Wolfgang's texted me that he's back in town from his Hawaiian Thanksgiving.  I hope he's got warm clothing on and that he didn't bring me any avocados.

.