January 7, 2012

Saturday Snippits





  • Yesterday was the last day of Christmas. Good old Wikipedia on Christmas gives me a good overview of Christmas and the holiday calendar. Yesterday was the last day of the liturgical Christmas season, Epiphany. It’s also a traditional day to take down the decorations. At our house we’ve been known to leave the decorations up until the Geezer’s birthday in late January. We both love our Christmas trees. Not this year. After several years of a worktable in the dining area, I long to see what a table looks like in that space. We are taking the decorations and lights down today.


  • Google tells me that it’s Charles Adams 100th birthday today. I loved his cartoons when I was a kid. G loved the TV show. He even can still hum the song. It’s also the mid-season for today’s television shows. Old favorites can disappear with little notice, and new shows like “Person of Interest” can vanish with the wave of a number cruncher. G and I have become caught up in this show, and it seems to be doing well. But how can we tell? We are just the audience. We wait for it to stop reruns and return with bated breath.


  • Clothes. Oh, the bane of my existence is my wardrobe. Being your standard retired, overweight old hippy with bad feet my wardrobe is a bit limited. I have pants: one dress pair and a couple of others each in denim, grey-green, black, navy blue, tan, and brown. I have t-shirts and turtlenecks that will go with those pants, and sweaters that work well too. I’m a solid color girl in a world now swirling in brilliant patterns. My newest volunteer job is as an usher. Not a casual wardrobe there. The guys wear suits, and I’ve gone in search of jackets to go over my solid color pants. After a week of deep searching…including in portions of my closet that are impossible to reach, I now have a turquoise jacket, a lime green blazer, a tweed coat, and best of all, I found a Talbot's silk and wool tweed suit at the fat ladies consignment store. I ought to now be able to mix and match enough to get through the next year.


  • Arthur-itus. As I become more intimate with this new friend, I string my days out to avoid its ugly side effects. Pain is not my friend, yet I don’t take prescription pain meds….not after that side effect from the “mild” med the doc gave me. Once a week, I do take Aleve on a day when I work out and go to work. Now days I wear braces on my hands not to contain the carpal tunnel syndrome, but to wrap up the arthritis in my thumbs. I wear compression stockings, when I can get G to help me with the right one, not only to subdue the lymphedema from the graft surgery but also to wrap up the arthritis in my legs. I’m well aware that I’m the least romantic of ladies, but I persevere. Four months ago, I changed much of how I move. For instance, I exercise only in the deep water. No more pounding on my joints. I ride scooters in the stores if they have them. It works. Counting by months, it should be time for another shot in my hip. Not yet. I can still get in the truck, so I should last fractionally longer this time.


  • I’ve read you. I’m really enjoying your posts. I haven’t left notes. Oh guilt. I’m so glad to know all of you. I’m so glad you are in my life. Frankly, I think I’m a far better person for knowing you.

14 comments:

  1. Arthritis is no fun. I have tried to not ride the scooter in the grocery store, but the store is so huge I may cave in eventually.

    Have a good day and be good to yourself. Usher...I could not. Dianne

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  2. I think you're amazing, just keep on truckin'. Your wardrobe sounds like mine, it's comfy if limited.

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  3. I am certainly better for knowing you. Your organized approach to your various art projects motivates me...not enough...but it is a start! You life history makes me so glad that you are here and survived it all!

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  4. As for shoes, I have a recommend: Alegria. Read about them online. They expensive (about $100 at Dillard among others) but you can get them online at nearly half that in closeouts. I received a pair for Christmas and my feet are more comfortable with them than without them.

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  5. Jackets, or blazers, are one of the wonderful inventions of fashion. (If the designers knew how useful jackets are, they would stop offering them.)

    One of my favorite things to do is pair a patterned jacket with a monocolor blouse whose color is repeated in the jacket. It almost looks coordinated.

    Don't worry about not commenting. As long as you post, we know you're there.

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  6. I use Aleve when I can't stand it any longer. My wardrobe is based mostly on jeans and New Balance sneakers....I do have a few patterned shirts in my wardrobe but I often can't seem to find a way to mix and match....and now in Florida, I long for some of the clothing I left back in Indiana! Next winter,I will do much better!

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  7. Wow, you're a stronger person than I am. I would have hit the pain meds long before now. Fortunately, I don't seem to be much of an arthritis person. My Dr. is terrified of anti-inflammatory drugs so I'd be out of luck getting anything from him. How about moving into a hot tub? A body size heating pad might help. I don't even know what's out there. Hang in there.

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  8. You always look so well-put together when I see you. I am in awe.

    Love,

    The Fashionless Pirate

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  9. Love the ornaments!!!

    Be glad you you don't have neuropathy, too -- like me.

    As to clothes, I live in jeans these day or, if I'm not going out, sweats. My poor lovely dresses just languish.

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  10. I am back in the web world after a long spell of too much trouble in the real world to pay proper attention to my wonderful web friends. Your closets sound like my closets. I went to a New Year's Eve party wearing a Chinese brocade jacket that I figured out was almost 50 years old. I remembered buying it in Hong Kong when my son was 9. He is about to become 59!

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  11. Oh dear! I'm so sorry about the pain. My mother-in-law had it bad and I remember how it affected her days. I'm happy to say our decorations are down already. AND... clothes? I have a wedding to attend and nothing truly appropriate to wear. Aggravation!

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  12. You are amazing, and I am a far better person knowing you. Happy New Year.

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  13. I have just bought my first dress for years and then thought what shall I do about my legs which are no longer blemish free.
    As it's January I'm going to wear black leather boots which have a wedge and - incredibly - are comfortable for normal eating out. Naturally it is a special occasion.

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  14. We still have our Christmas decorations up...in the past we have gone as late as the end of February.

    One year two-or-three weeks after the holidays, I reluctantly said that I supposed we should take them down. My sweetheart said "Do they make you happy? Do they make you smile?"

    They stayed up for a while longer.

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