ShopRite meeting was great. I think delivery to Castleton will work out really well.

Completely unrelated to all things advocacy: I got a Kindle Fire. It is perfect. I got a keyboard for it too, and plan to use it next semester in a technology classroom I have for my graduate class...which does not have a computer for the instructor.

Some things happening in our advocacy. The first meeting of the village economic development committee is set for early December. I am meeting with ShopRite about home delivery on Tuesday. And we saw boycott signs all over a house right next to the new megastore in Troy. I wonder what the spark was? It said "Stewart's isn't a good neighbor" and some stuff about greed.

On a personal mote, the semester is rapidly approaching the end, hard to believe. And our first snow was last night -- a little dusting.

 I love my recent creation:

We have boycott tee-shirts!

Although fighting a big company that is indifferent to your community's plight, and that everyone loves (as I did) is a big lift with daunting odds -- somehow I am doing it. The "Friends" are fired up, and that helps. There are other volunteers, and I'm most appreciative. Still, much falls on me, at the busiest time of the semester. But I'm not caving.

That's not to say that I think Stewart's will cave. Sometimes I think they will, and other times I think there's no chance. The Channel 13 reporter asked me on the day they locked our beloved store's door forever whether I thought our boycott would do anything to hurt Stewart's, and I said yes, that it would be like 1,000 wasp stings to the 1.5 billion dollar company. This particular sentence was the one I hoped would make the news, but it ended up on the cutting room floor.

That was OK, as the most important thing about our story is the devastating impact on Main Street -- both in terms of people and economics. I have been working on several fronts, trying to remedy all the catastrophes that the loss of our store has caused. It's not easy -- but I will keep at it.

I believe the boycott and associated negative publicity are indeed doing something! First, because they have hired shills to counter our constant presence on social media, to alternatively taunt us and pretend to be supporters, and second because I notice the East Greenbush store (boycott target # 1) is not busy! A lot of people -- more than I hoped -- are boycotting all stores, and I think maybe everyone is avoiding the new store!

I get no pleasure from this except in my darkest times, I never wanted it to get to this. I wish they would just concede, renovate our tiny store and reopen it. All would be forgiven. But until then...Stand with Castleton. Boycott Stewart's.