Black Friday Adventure with a Purpose

I have never participated in the madness that is "Black Friday" but with my little point and shoot back-up camera MIA, and after carefully studying ads on turkey day, I woke up early with resolve to battle the masses and try to catch a deal. With my digiscoping set up ordered on Thursday night, it was a good opportunity to get the P&S to go with at a good price. I would prefer to use my DSLR and hopefully once it arrives can figure it all out.

I went to bed so early that I was up and wide awake by 2:00 am. To kill time before my planned departure time, I mixed up a batch of suet for the birds as I had put my last one out yesterday. The orange had already peeled and shreaded and the raisins and blueberries chopped. All I really had to do was melt the lard and crunchy peanut butter together. The corn meal, oatmeal, some brown sugar and a little flour was already measured and in a plastic bag. Mix all together and add in some bird seed. I use recycled containers from when I purchase and commercial suet cake fill and chill. The birds by and far favor the homemade. I believe it is the orange they really like. Yields 6 for a batch.


0320 and time to depart for Chain T that opened at 0400. I immediately proceeded to the back and found my intended, the Nikon Coolpix. As I have not ever had a Nikon camera, I was unsure about it and continued with my back-up plan to Chain W which opened at 0500. Without haste to the line for the cameras that were on sale I snagged two of the little Kodak's that were on sale for $59. One was for someone else.

When I arrived home I was anxious to give them a try and do some comparison to determine which one I will keep or sell later. I have to say, I am really impressed with the Kodak C183. I took identical shots with both and hands down, the Kodak was better. Keep in mind, the Kodak deal was $59 and the Coolpix was $79. I will wait and see which will work better with the scope setup.

Slacking this afternoon. Picked up Marley and Me at a dirt cheap price and Ali and I curled up on the couch to watch. In many ways, Ali and her mischevious behavior reminds me of Marley. Is ti just a Lab thing?