Month: March 2017

Tie o’ the Day #2 be a fleur de Tommy Hilfiger. Springy, huh? And my shirt be another fave Bugatchi. If you look closely at the shirt pattern/colors, you can see that the lines are kinda frosted-looking/out of focus. Groovy.

As for the neckwear, I couldn’t resist choosing a tie with gardeny flowers all over it, cuz I just finished watching the episode of THE CLOSER in which the murder weapon is a bigly garden gnome. Now that’s some clever scriptwriting. 😂

It’s funny that I can re-watch THE CLOSER, from the beginning to the end of the series, as much as two or three times a year. It never gets old to me. (Suzanne just rolls with it, and she crafts her patient heart out while I’m spinning dvd’s.)

If you are familiar with the THE CLOSER’s characters, you must have figured out already that I am Lt. Provenza, who grouses around sagely, while decked out in swell ties and a fisherman-style hat. But he is not hesitant to declare that he does not run, climb stairs, search for evidence in dumpsters, or otherwise move swiftly or unnecessarily.

Suzanne is clearly Lt. Tao, with his cornucopia of gadgets and overly-technical, long-winded explanations of ballistics, statistics, trajectories, etc.. A trait Tao and Suzanne don’t share: Tao’s explanatory speeches always have a point, but Suzanne’s sometimes do not. Don’t worry. She knows this about herself. She can be pointless at times, despite building up a good story.

I, on the other hand,–unlike my Provenza self– tend to be non-linear in my storytelling and exhortations. And I usually make way too many points.😲

Tie o’ the Day #1 kind of apologizes for being a Ryan Seacrest. But it is cute and Irish-y. It’s not an American Idol, but I think that counts in its favor. Shirt is one of my Bristol & Bull’s. In case you can’t tell by now, note that I love the color purple. And the book of that same name, as well.

Today Tie and I are having the garbage dump adventure, followed by a drop-off at the thrift store adventure. Then we are filling a dozen bins full of stuff we are moving up to Centerville, so we can start filling up the garage that Suzanne just cleaned out, with belongings that have lived in D-ville. Thus, there will still not be room for two vehicles in the two-car garage. How we are gonna put three vehicles in the two-car garage when we keep the truck up there too is beyond me. I suppose if we put Vonnegut Grace in the truck bed before we pulled it into the garage… Maybe not, I guess.

Trivia Alert! I was doing some reading this morning (surprise, surprise), and I discovered a fact that made me feel incredibly stoopid. Quicksilver is just another name for mercury. How can I live this long and have such an intimate relationship with words, and still have missed that fact? I will feel like a big dope all day, I’m positive. And then it makes me wonder what other simple factoids like that am I still in the dark about. How do I know what things I don’t know, so I can know to know them? I’m stymied and in a panic. And I can guarantee this: the pendulum in my head has swung to the mania side. Aaaaarrrrrgggghhhh! My day just got busier with manic bipolarity.😜

 

Tie o’ the Day #2 is from Geoffrey Beene. I like its combination of lime hues and gray. The wild shirt is one of my Bugatchi favorites. It will continue to play a recurring role on this tblog, as will all my Bugatchi “blouses”. It is a great piece of clash, in and of itself. In fact, it can cause almost every tie in the free world to be an element of visual discord.😲

This Tie o’ the Day is pleased to present the following clever poem, about knowing what we are good at, and what we are not:

“What I Can Do”, by Mary Oliver

The television has two instruments that control it./ I get confused./ The washer asks me, do you want regular or delicate?/ Honestly, I just want clean./ Everything is like that./ I won’t even mention cell phones./

I can turn on the light of the lamp beside my chair/ where a book is waiting, but that’s about it./

Oh yes, and I can strike a match and make fire./

Ain’t that simple, smart, and true?!

Tie o’ the Day #1 is a swirly green Alfani. Lovely shirt is a houndstooth Bugatchi, my favorite shirt collection. We are stylin’ today!

Please enjoy the photo’s salmon pink bathroom tiles that are still on Momo’s bathroom wall. How could I ever dare to replace such beauty? They probably have been decorating said bathroom for at least fifty years. For all I know they are a bearing wall; and if removed, the house would fall down.

That reminds me of the old, old DHS, which used to be on the grounds of the city park, where the Delta City offices currently sit. The authorities solemnly condemned the school in the late 60’s, determining it was structurally unsound. It was reportedly going to collapse at any moment! Panic ensued! I attended kindergarten in the high school’s former lunch room, which was a separate structure, set off yards from the high school. We students were never allowed to approach the unsafe high school for fear it would fall down on us.

When the ancient school was finally filled with blasting caps, and the engineers attempted to implode it, the damn thing wouldn’t fall. I was a wee tyke and can’t remember exactly how many times they had to bomb the place before it finally collapsed. But I do remember this: Momo and Pop took me up to watch the implosion on more than one occasion before the school building finally came down.

Say it with me, people! They don’t make ’em like they used to. 😁

Tie o’ the Day #2 is a ritzy Beau Brummel.  That just plain sounds snooty, doesn’t it?

Skitter must have snuck into the tie closet while I was watching Judge Judy. She came waltzing out of the bedroom in this tie. Of course, she was trying to wrangle her way into going with me to The Pub.

I used to be able to tell Skitter she couldn’t go to The Pub with me cuz she was a minor, but she’s not a minor anymore. I had to break it to her this afternoon that she will never be legally allowed in The Pub—because she is not a people. She had no idea she was “different”, so that was an enormous shock to her skittish, canine system.

I explained to her about prejudice and discrimination. About its many forms and guises. About bigots. About how every living thing is “different” in some way (many ways, in fact), depending on what “they” say is the “norm”. I explained that the categories and mechanisms used to commit bigotry are completely arbitrary. They bear no resemblance to the truth, beauty, and goodness of existence. Bigotry is reductive and riddled with the fear of everything except itself.

Skitter pondered seriously about the in’s, and out’s, and up’s, and down’s, and sideway’s of what I said. She thought and thought, until her tiny thinker was exhausted. And then she said, “But can I still wear the tie?”

Now, that’s a perfect perspective: Just go about your life, in wonder and love and ties.

Tie o’ the Day #1 is ecstatic to know that it is finally St. Paddy’s month. It is a tie fact that the extended family of green ties has been preparing for eleven months for their yearly opportunity to display themselves in their verdant hues. Neckwear and shirt are both created by CHAPS. I wonder if CHAPS has ever thought of getting into the real cowboy business of making chaps. I know I would be the first in line (online?) to acquire some, if they produced ’em. And I’d certainly make them a staple of this tblog.

Mom is wintering in St. George for a week or so, so this morning I drove only Pegetha on the daily drinking rounds. She gave me a tub–and I mean a TUB–of chowder for my upcoming birthday. I ain’t gonna complain about homemade eats. I will, however, have to put a boatload of the delicious concoction into the freezer. Otherwise, I will have to eat it three meals per day for about two weeks. It’s a big tub!

Today is moving day. Suzanne is moving into her new, bigger-wig office, for her new, bigger-wig  job. Rowan is moving into his own apartment with two friends. Although he is in his second year at the U of U, this is his first foray out from home, and into Renter World. He will be living only a few miles from us. And he will continue to work at the Starbucks that is located about three blocks from our townhouse. But you wouldn’t know he will still be in our vicinity based on how Suzanne is in Mommy Worry Mode. She is such an even-tempered gal about whatever goes on, but this…… Don’t make eye contact with her when she’s thinking about Rowan working on becoming a grown-up. You never know what you’re gonna get from her emotions right now.

Oh, we know Rowan can do the Real Grown-up Life successfully. We know he can handle his adult life. And he knows he has our love and confidence and support. But he and I see Suzanne’s My-Poor-Little-Boy Face sneak out across her visage a lot lately. I feel what she’s feeling. But I shoot her the “Put that face away” look, lest Rowan interpret that look of hers to mean we don’t think he is capable of accomplishing the up’s, and conquering the down’s of adulthood. Suzanne is the one who is experiencing the growing pains that Rowan really isn’t.