11/23/2018
And so, the big feast day is over. Hope you all survived the massive caloric intake! Truthfully, it was a magnificent meal prepared by Sarah and Jason (that boy can cook!) and enjoyed by us all! We also watched the Dallas Cowboys win their 3rd game in a row, and later, I watched Butler romp all over their basketball opponent. I call that a good, relaxing day. I sure hope yours was, also, and that, at least, some of those you love the most were with you. Slightly under half our family was here. The rest we loved from afar, yesterday.
Today’s SIMH was a real oldie, written even before I was born: “Skylark”, by Hoagy Carmichael, another Hoosier. This was written 1927, and as most songs of worth to its listeners, it comes back around often. Dinah Shore recorded it in 1960; Linda Ronstadt in ’84, and k.d. Lang in ’97. I have most always liked Ronstadt’s version of anything, and hers is good. But, k.d. Lang did her version for a movie and she nailed it! The only number of hers I really like to listen to, as I recall.
Which begs the question, do I dislike Lang and her music because of her sexual proclivity? No, not at all. If I worried about that, I’d be hard pressed to find someone of either gender to be sure of, right? If I had the chance to talk with her or anyone about this sort of thing, I wouldn’t. (Notwithstanding, I might talk to anyone about anything at anytime, you understand.) No, I would talk with her (or anyone) about whether there had ever been a day in their life when, realizing they were a sinner in need of a Savior, had they put their trust in Christ’s finished work for their salvation. Sinning, an ongoing difficulty, wouldn’t be the question. It would be “who do you trust for payment for any and all sins?”
Black Friday is roaring as I write this (I guess.) It is a big day for most retailers, biggest day of the year for a majority of them. I ran a jewelry store for about 4 1/2 years, back when “black Friday” got its name, in the 60s. In our chain of stores, the biggest day was usually the day before Christmas or the day after Christmas, mostly dependent on what day of the week Christmas. The largest two days ever, were both on the day after Christmas. Black Friday came in a distant 3rd most years. Interesting how things change over time.
In the Alkaline water business, it is difficult to “hype” up a day. Everyone who wants our water likely fall into a routine of getting it once or twice a week and hyping a certain day probably isn’t going to change that. I’ll let you know tomorrow, for today, we are trying some new sales promo methods to see if we can change things a bit.
As of this moment, the new stores look as if they’ll open in this order: Gadsden, possibly before next weekend; The Woodlands on Dec. 7,8; and the Lake Charles store about two weeks before Christmas. Sarah’s store in Fort Payne opened four years ago on Dec. 8, but had a “grand opening” on Jan.8. I thought it was a good way to get open, work out the surprises, then “grand open” a month later. We’re pretty excited to have these 3 added to our chain startup!
Another town is getting close on location, a couple more could move fast, one small town, one larger—2019 might be a good year!
Well, go make this a big day for someone, or just sit back, relax and let “them others” go fight the crowds! Either way, I hope you can ease back into the “double weekend” week and feel good about the way you’ve handled everything. Oh, by the way, there is a football game of some note on tomorrow afternoon (Iron Bowl, Alabama vs. Auburn), in case you forgot that. If you did forget it, you must not live in Alabama!
Thanks for reading, the Elder
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