The temperature at 0600 Wednesday was 12 degrees warmer than Monday and, if the National Weather Service is correct, it will warm quickly to reach 58 degrees in the afternoon with an overnight low above freezing for the first time in too many days. Not bad for the day before Thanksgiving.
Turkey Day will bring us a high temperature in the mid-50s with some rain forecast for the madness of Black Friday, but the highs should remain through the end of November and into the last month of 2022.
Many of us will welcome the end of a turbulent year, with the midterm elections bringing both a pleasant surprise — proof that voters can still show Democracy is not dead or dying — along with a promise of more chaos ahead in 2023.
Thanksgiving is a brief calm before the storm of the Christmas season and, for several retailers, the last chance for survival in an economy still struggling to recover from the double-whammy of the pandemic and high inflation that leaves many finding too many days left before the next paycheck arrives.
In a county where many live on Social Security, a much-needed raise arrives in their benefits, starting with the payments in February but the increase, while larger than in previous years, the extra money will not be enough to cover the higher prices at grocery stores and at gas pumps.
Too many are quick to blame current President Joe Biden, but I worked for Congress and for presidents while in Washington for 23 years and learned enough about how our government does and does not work to know that the economy is too often out of the hands of the occupant of the White House. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, price-fixing on oil by the Saudis and its mid-Eastern co-conspirators, and general greediness by gas companies and food retailers share the blame for this one.
Biden, however, abandoned a promise to “get tough” with Saudi Arabia but then put in protections for the murdering prince who orchestrated the death of an American-based Saudi journalist who uncovered the human rights violations and criminal acts of the kingdom he once called home.
Each of us pays for that duplicity each time we fill our gas tanks for fuel that cost more than a dollar more — and sometimes two bucks or more.
On Thursday, we can try to put such things aside and chow down on turkey, ham, or a vegan dish and fall asleep watching football on the tube or binge on computer-provided streaming programming that has all but replaced regular TV.
Have fun (if one can call it that) on Black Friday. We gave that gift-buying gluttony day decades ago but I hope to film the Floyd Christmas Parade that stars in downtown Floyd at 3 p.m. Sunday — if health allows.
The weather forecast for Sunday calls for a chance of showers in the morning but hopefully clearing by 3 p.m. with a high of 53 degrees — jacket weather but liveable.
From my wife Amy and I, our best wishes for Thanksgiving and our condolences for the madness that follows in the economic orgy called Christmas.