' By Any Other Name '

a rose by any other name
would surely smell as sweet : from the pen of W Shakespeare

the national day calendar has this :November 25, 2016 – BLACK FRIDAY – NATIONAL NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE DAY – NATIONAL DAY OF LISTENING – PARFAIT DAY – YOU’RE WELCOMEGIVING DAY – MAIZE DAY – BLASE’ DAY – BUY NOTHING DAY – FLOSSING DAY – SHOPPING REMINDER DAY

Read ' em and weep folks !

And how do you wish someone ' happy Black Friday ' -   kinda like ' hope you get the plague , Ta Da '

The blog membership may jump another 25 % if I mention last night's Thanksgiving Dinner

First though , some reminders about the blog. I don't make anything up. In the words of Will Rogers ' folks , I just report what I read '
And I reserve the right to ' spin ' the story as I need. Its called bending.

We arrived at close to 4 Pm , and were greeted by the host prepping
hors' oeuvres for our gathering. We were first. M said to sit and wait in the car. Noper , we went in.
The group was a mix of Canadians and Americans. We were unique , as renters , and not friends per se of the host. It was our first time at this event but were not alone.
Thus , we almost fit in.
At home , we serve rice w/ the turkey. Rice and gravy deserves a  National Day of its own.
The host was Italian by heritage - thus pasta started the buffet.
And there was turkey and stuffing and all the trimmings.

The conversation was lively. I didn't get a chance to hit on my specialty subjects , fishing and lacrosse. Meaning ,the listeners got saved.  The blog got a mention and hence  the possibility of a new reader.       Ka boom ! Just like that.

I was careful and took a little of most things and stopped. Overall , a much controlled dining effort. Enjoyed it all.

Now , we come to conceit and swimming. What ??
The background , on holidays in the south , I swim everyday. There was a time , maybe , 4 yrs ago ,when I would do 100 laps in 30 minutes.
I record every swim in a personal calendar notebook. 
The bitter truth. This year , its become obvious that 100 laps really is taking 33 - 34 minutes. BUT I'm still writing down 30 / 100 for the swim.
Now , come on ! No one reads the notebook. M has to listen to me whine about the quality of the swim , good / bad - was it smooth or my favourite apparently, ' I was a machine !! '.
Then , why does the notebook notation say , 30 / 100.
Dunno.
I'm going into each swim w/ the idea that doing is better than not doing. I have promised myself , if I swim 80 laps , I can stop.
I'm still doing the 100 , albeit , slower than before.
I suppose that , one can argue that 30 minutes is typically the recommended amount of daily exercise 5 or so times a week.

See its , conceit ! A little lie to make me feel better.
When we started coming to the Sunrise , I said that I want to do this ( swim ) for the next ten yrs and re -evaluate. That was 2005.
I'm 11 yrs older and wiser and lying like a banshee.

' Still crazy , after all these years ' Paul Simon

We shall see said the Zen Master

happy black friday  , tho '