Black Friday

Today's retailers will once again make it into the black ink of accounting without gathering any of my money. I will dutifully avoid anything to do with shopping -- in person, or online -- and let the bargain hunters enjoy the chaos of the capitalistic side of the holidays.

I will venture out to the library at some point. I have a couple of books due today.
It's been since spring that I've enjoyed some fiction reading, but I opened the Kindle app on my phone the other day and picked one of the freebies in my library. Maybe I'm on the way to another 600 day streak. I suppose that reading a book about witches, werewolves, and other fantasy creatures isn't any worse than scrolling through Facebook, Instagram, or X.

With the cold weather shelters opening up and several overnight shifts ahead of me, some reading material will come in handy. I like using the phone app for reading as it's very portable, always with me, and easy to read in low light. With the Kindle Unlimited subscription most books are free (the subscription costs a few bucks) and there is an abundance of available material. For books not available on Kindle there is the local library. I haven't yet tried to use the library's e-reader. I may have to do that at some point.
Another advantage of an e-reader is being able to set the print color, background lighting, and font size. Although I rarely use glasses anymore, some actual books are more difficult to read in lower light than they used to be. Using my bifocals or a pair of reading glasses are sometimes necessary.
I have an older android tablet that I may update and use for a reader when I'm at home this winter. The larger reading area might be nice and the Kindle app will keep each device current so changing from the tablet to phone will be seamless. 

That - rarely using glasses anymore - thing has been a nice surprise. I'm not sure how to explain it. My last visit to the eye doctor was the first visit since retiring nearly nine years ago that my vision didn't improve. It didn't get any worse, but it didn't get better. 
Another weird eye thing -- my eye color has changed. My eyes used to be a very dark brown, but are now more of a light brown, nearly hazel color. I'm not sure when that happened. I just noticed it one day a couple of years ago.

Unfortunately, my eye color is the only thing that has gotten lighter. The rest of me is as heavy as ever!

Enjoy your weekend -- however you decide to spend it.

John