Clothes Make The Man
Hello World,
Isn’t it amazing how you can just put down your New Year’s party hats and noisemakers, and the next time you look up, it’s the 21 st already. I honestly don’t know where the time goes. I hope that you had a very pleasant and suitably civil rights-ish Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, and celebrated with the appropriate festive attire, songs, dancing and traditional foods for the holiday. As for myself, I have no idea what those might be, so if you do, please let me know and thank you very much.
We celebrated the long weekend as we always do, by going to visit friends in Albany and staying over there. Even though it’s three weeks after Christmas, our friends leave up their tree and decorations, and we exchange presents, so it’s like a mini-Christmas for us that we enjoy every year. Although it seems to fly in the face of logic to drive 200 miles north in the middle of January, we haven’t really had a lot of bad weather to contend with over the years. This year, we decided to start out on Friday, and took the day off from work so we could make an early start of it. That almost happened, and we were on our way by 11:30, in spite of many obstacles and circumstances conspiring against us. We were in good spirits, even though we left in a steady downpour, confident that we would soon drive out of it as we made our way north.
That almost worked, too, as we discovered that the farther north we went, the rain first turned into a mix of rain and snow, and then all snow as we went along. We kept on plugging, and the idea that we would drive out of it appeared ever more fanciful than our silly ideas usually do. Finally we got to a higher elevation area, where the snow seemed to be coming from every direction at once, and you couldn’t even see the hood in front of your own windshield, much less anyone else on the road. This also looked to be a handy spot for the wind to pick up, and we found ourselves being blown sideways, as well as not being able to see anything. It was a relief to start heading downhill again, and sure enough, the snow turned back to rain and snow, then just rain as we came down on the other side. It was shortly after that we noticed that the sun was out, and all we could do was look at each other and shake our heads. I’m thinking our old pal Comrade Mischka must have been having a field day.
When we finally got where we were going, they were having a beautiful day, and because they already had a lot of rain before, there wasn’t even much in the way of snow piled up anywhere. This made it a lot easier to get around, except right at our friends house, where they not only have a series of hundreds of tiny crooked wooden steps to get to their house, but they apparently make sure to coat them with ice just before we get there. It’s actually rather comical to see us try and negotiate these killer steps, all bundled up and carrying the piles of effluvia that we bring with us everywhere. I’m figuring that our friends take bets on who is going to slide the farthest after falling down on the steps, but I outsmarted them this time. When I slid down the steps, I fell into the car instead of sliding all the way down the driveway.
After that, things settled down and we had a nice dinner out, plus did a bit of shopping besides. Then we came back and opened Christmas presents, and what could be better than that! Bill got some nice new sweats and assorted techno gadgets, while I got some beautiful new clothes of my own and a bunch of nifty salt-&-pepper shakers. We finally turned in after midnght, tired but happy, and only slightly worried about the curses being heaped upon us by their monster cat, who is one of Satan’s minions, and who resents being supplanted from his roost in the guest room, and by guests, of all things.
Saturday turned out to be another nice day, and we spent it in fine style, first by joining another couple for lunch, and then checking out some local consignment shops north of Albany, just for the heck of it. The first one we went to didn’t have collectible salt shakers to speak of, so instead I bought 3 skirts for $15 and 2 nightgowns for $5 each. This was a first for me, as I very rarely look at clothes when out window-shopping, and much more likely to scarf up any souvenir spoons or shakers if I find myself in a knick-knack sort of place. But I had been planning to buy myself some patterned skirts, and I also needed new flannel nightgowns in a big way, so here was a bargain not to be missed. As it is, the nightgowns I have now are so bald that you can read the newspaper right through them, which I have to admit is a feature that I have never found much use for. After that, we returned to The Peddler’s Wagon, where we had been last year, and everyone may remember that I bought something like 8 sets of shakers for $30, and did about the same thing this time around as well. Then we had pizza for dinner, and although no one would consider downtown Valatie to be a hotbed of Italian culinary excellence, it was certainly adequate enough for a bunch of tired and hungry travelers. We went to bed late again, with our ears full of more curses from Satan’s minion.
You will scarcely believe it if I tell you that we went out again on Sunday for lunch and more shopping, but that is the gospel truth. This time it was lunch at Denny’s, followed by even more shakers across the parking lot at Cracker Barrel. This is always a real treat for us, because these two fine retail establishments are denied us in our local area, with the closest ones being about 50 miles away or so. They did not disappoint, and even more so, our stop at Hewitt’s for left-over Christmas merchandise at 75% off, where we picked up some wonderful items at great deals. All too soon, it was time to pack up and go, and although I seemed to feel someone pushing me from behind, we managed to get all of our belongings into the car without falling down the killer steps again. Although our friends were sad to see us go, the devil cat couldn’t have been happier, especially since I think he was starting to run out of curses to hurl at us.
We drove home without incident, and arrived at our doorstep to find it looking just as we had left it, which is always an encouraging sign. The cats greeted us with their usual disdain, which is a lucky thing, because it lets us know immediately that we haven’t accidentally wandered into the wrong house. The only bad part is that now Christmas is well and truly behind us for another year, and it leaves us not much to look forward to in the face of a long and dreary winter ahead. Quick! Where’s that Valentine’s Day candy?!
Isn’t it amazing how you can just put down your New Year’s party hats and noisemakers, and the next time you look up, it’s the 21 st already. I honestly don’t know where the time goes. I hope that you had a very pleasant and suitably civil rights-ish Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, and celebrated with the appropriate festive attire, songs, dancing and traditional foods for the holiday. As for myself, I have no idea what those might be, so if you do, please let me know and thank you very much.
We celebrated the long weekend as we always do, by going to visit friends in Albany and staying over there. Even though it’s three weeks after Christmas, our friends leave up their tree and decorations, and we exchange presents, so it’s like a mini-Christmas for us that we enjoy every year. Although it seems to fly in the face of logic to drive 200 miles north in the middle of January, we haven’t really had a lot of bad weather to contend with over the years. This year, we decided to start out on Friday, and took the day off from work so we could make an early start of it. That almost happened, and we were on our way by 11:30, in spite of many obstacles and circumstances conspiring against us. We were in good spirits, even though we left in a steady downpour, confident that we would soon drive out of it as we made our way north.
That almost worked, too, as we discovered that the farther north we went, the rain first turned into a mix of rain and snow, and then all snow as we went along. We kept on plugging, and the idea that we would drive out of it appeared ever more fanciful than our silly ideas usually do. Finally we got to a higher elevation area, where the snow seemed to be coming from every direction at once, and you couldn’t even see the hood in front of your own windshield, much less anyone else on the road. This also looked to be a handy spot for the wind to pick up, and we found ourselves being blown sideways, as well as not being able to see anything. It was a relief to start heading downhill again, and sure enough, the snow turned back to rain and snow, then just rain as we came down on the other side. It was shortly after that we noticed that the sun was out, and all we could do was look at each other and shake our heads. I’m thinking our old pal Comrade Mischka must have been having a field day.
When we finally got where we were going, they were having a beautiful day, and because they already had a lot of rain before, there wasn’t even much in the way of snow piled up anywhere. This made it a lot easier to get around, except right at our friends house, where they not only have a series of hundreds of tiny crooked wooden steps to get to their house, but they apparently make sure to coat them with ice just before we get there. It’s actually rather comical to see us try and negotiate these killer steps, all bundled up and carrying the piles of effluvia that we bring with us everywhere. I’m figuring that our friends take bets on who is going to slide the farthest after falling down on the steps, but I outsmarted them this time. When I slid down the steps, I fell into the car instead of sliding all the way down the driveway.
After that, things settled down and we had a nice dinner out, plus did a bit of shopping besides. Then we came back and opened Christmas presents, and what could be better than that! Bill got some nice new sweats and assorted techno gadgets, while I got some beautiful new clothes of my own and a bunch of nifty salt-&-pepper shakers. We finally turned in after midnght, tired but happy, and only slightly worried about the curses being heaped upon us by their monster cat, who is one of Satan’s minions, and who resents being supplanted from his roost in the guest room, and by guests, of all things.
Saturday turned out to be another nice day, and we spent it in fine style, first by joining another couple for lunch, and then checking out some local consignment shops north of Albany, just for the heck of it. The first one we went to didn’t have collectible salt shakers to speak of, so instead I bought 3 skirts for $15 and 2 nightgowns for $5 each. This was a first for me, as I very rarely look at clothes when out window-shopping, and much more likely to scarf up any souvenir spoons or shakers if I find myself in a knick-knack sort of place. But I had been planning to buy myself some patterned skirts, and I also needed new flannel nightgowns in a big way, so here was a bargain not to be missed. As it is, the nightgowns I have now are so bald that you can read the newspaper right through them, which I have to admit is a feature that I have never found much use for. After that, we returned to The Peddler’s Wagon, where we had been last year, and everyone may remember that I bought something like 8 sets of shakers for $30, and did about the same thing this time around as well. Then we had pizza for dinner, and although no one would consider downtown Valatie to be a hotbed of Italian culinary excellence, it was certainly adequate enough for a bunch of tired and hungry travelers. We went to bed late again, with our ears full of more curses from Satan’s minion.
You will scarcely believe it if I tell you that we went out again on Sunday for lunch and more shopping, but that is the gospel truth. This time it was lunch at Denny’s, followed by even more shakers across the parking lot at Cracker Barrel. This is always a real treat for us, because these two fine retail establishments are denied us in our local area, with the closest ones being about 50 miles away or so. They did not disappoint, and even more so, our stop at Hewitt’s for left-over Christmas merchandise at 75% off, where we picked up some wonderful items at great deals. All too soon, it was time to pack up and go, and although I seemed to feel someone pushing me from behind, we managed to get all of our belongings into the car without falling down the killer steps again. Although our friends were sad to see us go, the devil cat couldn’t have been happier, especially since I think he was starting to run out of curses to hurl at us.
We drove home without incident, and arrived at our doorstep to find it looking just as we had left it, which is always an encouraging sign. The cats greeted us with their usual disdain, which is a lucky thing, because it lets us know immediately that we haven’t accidentally wandered into the wrong house. The only bad part is that now Christmas is well and truly behind us for another year, and it leaves us not much to look forward to in the face of a long and dreary winter ahead. Quick! Where’s that Valentine’s Day candy?!
posted by El Tango Fandango @ 7:50 PM
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