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Cyber Monday saw a scant bit of snow, but very much more, some would say record, added holiday shopping. Much like the freezing and addled Black Friday. As an aside, the tale was told by who shoveled what on their walks … Not the businesses you would think. (That night, for bar traffic, was more of a fright than cyber attacks, in a new add to this post.)

It’s 9 a.m., usual work starting time, on Cyber Monday, and the inch of snow seen on the sidewalk from the night before tells it all. By just who shoveled.

The cyber-hospitality industry did not necessarily lead the way for that, even with brushing with the broom, as Cyber Monday now had its biggest boom, and apparently the scant bit of snow was not seen as a barrier — hey, it’s all online baby!

— Hudson Community Action will again introduce the greater area to one of its biggest and earliest holiday festival craft fairs and bizzares, on this first Saturday of the month from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and we’ll assume it lives up to its billing, at the Hudson Middle School and with more than 170 vendors — and live music, although no bands or genres are specified on signs around town or online. Boo! (They did add in a few late posters around town the fact that Hudson holiday stalwart Colleen Raye would play.) But that vagueness of note, is also true at Jethro’s BBQ Roadhouse, just north of town, where they have band(s) each weekend and maybe even on Thursday, but all it says online for each night is “live music,” and we don’t known if that’s salsa or Latin, jazz or classical, big band or orchestra, but more likely rock or country. (We’re lazy, and we don’t like to take notebooks into live venues to take down the details, as people — and owners — can get surly.) We will note that The Luck Band played at Ziggy’s Hudson on Friday night, with Lori Bahneman ripping through such styles vocally and including as everyone AC/DC, and the guitar was virtuoistic. —

The Cyber Monday places that had their snow shoveled, pronto, and apropo, often were such as insurance agencies, even though likely not open for the day. But there was the then Smilin’ Moose, shoveled completely on both the main drag and the side-street, and one other venue with just a small strip shoveled, and a last one with just a quaint, barely-yard-large-and-big square offed and offered.

— Hey psst, a last lingering notation from Black Friday and Cyber Monday and week, etc., and how to gas up to get there, as if you didn’t know it had (passed now eventually.)

A gas card given away by the dozens from Circle K — rapidly taking over the Wisconsin scene and challenging in this end and up especially north in the Badger State, and only there can you get away with such Packer-like sacrilege — allows you to get not a mere three or four and maybe five cents off but a full ten, per gallon, EVERY SINGLE DAY!! Up to 20 gallons, through 2025, so unless you are going to Thanksgiving-type distances …

And of course, there is that snowstorm starting south and then moving northeast, dumping up to several feet, that was said in this way, if you transpose a few letters: “Wi to NY.” That is much like winter, my last name, bad spelled. And yes, there are scads of my relatives in hard-hit lower Michigan too.

One other bad misspelling. If you do not read far enough along into the grid … “Get ready to bake your holiday tr …” Would that be badly botched turkey mentioned? No, actually if you read further its token “treats.” With Christmas soon coming, and the stacking of the weeks are thusly aligned. Cookies, etc. —

All other venues as of 9 a.m., had no snow foregoing as far as shoveling. (A tell-tale truck of, I believe, an owner did pull up, likely with a shovel in back.) But wait, there was that one other exception .. At the former Associated Bank site, the downtown one, and I do not know who owns the property right now … I’ll have my fact-checkers, and they need right now considering me to be many … the newfound snow was basically gone except a newer trickle on again, both the full length of their main drag and the side-street westward. (The building has been empty for years, and you would think this a prime location, despite ongoing pasted signs on the door from Comcast saying it was their business solution — apparently did not work — and that there (still) is Wifi available.)

A side note on what’s on the sidewalk: My apartment building mega-maintenance guru, Nichole, as a counterpoint, had just finished her shoveling, at least right out front, when I began my walk.

And again then going back to black, as in our recent Friday. A slew of online ads, reverting back to that day, (dark web?), in what are more legitimate sources … tout deals that despite it being called Cyber Week, end on either that day, or Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday. Skip Sunday. As per the Bible, no commerce.

And back then there was no air travel. These days, as far as travel, every holiday trumps itself in Biblical proportions, as far as people hitting the skies and the road. And do they stay well grounded? Will drones save the day? And can the Elon oil of Musk and his air travel, up to the heavens and beyond in a spacey way, save the day, just like the now plentiful, again, stowaways as far as accommodating numbers to reach that now record airline load? And Cyber Monday was supposed to peak not long before midnight.

Back at the Spirit Seller, that was about the only place that was busy, upon their 9 a.m. not p.m. opening time, and there were — careful here — three blue collar working men would coulda come from that country just south of ours, complaining about the cold but grabbing some frosty ones anyway. I guess there would be concrete poured, or at least hash browns prepped, before snow would be shoveled.

Cyber Monday night was a nightlife dead zone, but at least all the sidewalks, et al, had been shoveled, with the brave exception of in front of the Hudson Tap, but they did have a bare sidewalk strip below their ample awning and also big bench. As white and blue balloons from the weekend were still whafting in the wind, being tethered to such, but for whom?

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