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Raiding Other People’s Clothes

Tie o’ the Day #2 is a many-hued purple harlequin pattern by ALFANI. And no, the “blouse” (which I won’t actually wear today) is not mine. It is Suzanne’s, and it, too, is by ALFANI. It is also the first girly piece of clothing that Tie o’ the Day has featured. Let me just be frank: Suzanne looks suave in this, although she does not wear ties with it or with any other of her outfits. But in fact, these days she is looking fantastic in anything she wears. She is over fifty pounds less of the woman she was just months ago. And I am glad she doesn’t have to be on blood pressure meds anymore. I am so proud of her.

Suzanne has always been aware of and indulgent of my varied eccentricities. She doesn’t mind a closet full o’ ties. She doesn’t mind the bins of bow ties and pocket squares. She smiles at the tiny boxes of cufflinks and lapel pins.

She doesn’t mind stacks of books used as home decor. She doesn’t mind that many of these books have titles like The Toothpick: Technology and Culture. Nor does she mind that I own at least 3 copies of Slouching Toward Bethlehem, by Joan Didion, and Teaching A Stone to Talk, by Annie Dillard. Oh, and then there are probably 5 or 6 copies of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and Other Poems. And even though we are paring down our possessions significantly, it will not even occur to her to pester me to keep only one copy of each book.

She’s fine with my mismatched socks, and my sometimes mix-matched shoes. She’s okay when I come home with the right side of my head shaved. My sarcasm and jocularity wear her out sometimes, but that doesn’t mean she wants me to be any other way. At least, I hope she doesn’t. Time will tell. 😁

Full disclosure: The above is not to be considered the full extent of my life-long eccentricities. 🤡

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Finally! A Tank Top Day!!!

Tie o’ the Day #1 is a flowery bow by Stacy Adams. It creates a nice piece of blendy clash fashion with the colorful shirt. The top is a brand called L r g. Maybe that stands for “large”. Maybe it’s pronounced “allergy”–because it is springtime, and there’s the abundance of bloomy allergens. Note the giraffe. Giraffe’s are tall, in case you didn’t know.😜

After I finished Hair Duty for Mom this morning, I immediately drove from Deltassippi to C-ville, hauling the correct sewing project Suzanne needed up here. The mutts were wondering why we had stayed in D-ville for only 20 hours. But they are fine-a-roo.

I have been lucky that all of my dogs have been road warriors. That’s the kind of thing that qualifies as blessing, in my opinion–since driving has been such a huge part of my life. I have no idea what the Heck Tate I would have done all these years if I had a dog that was a sickly traveler. Perhaps I don’t have to worry much about that being a necessary dog trait of future pups now that we will be dwelling in only a single house soon. Of course, there is always that traveling-for-pleasure thing. So I guess any new canine additions really do need to travel well. I don’t want to have to feed them Dramamine or make them wear nausea patches, like Suzanne has to wear on airplanes.

Oh, and I love driving my dogs on rides in the bed of my ancient truck. I love it because they take such joy in truck-riding. Their floppy ears blow back wildly, and they bark at any living creature we pass while we are out on the gravel roads in the desert. Their favorite critters are rabbits and chuckers. They relish seeing the occasional quimp, as do I. They are, however, occasionally frightened by large tumbleweeds that blow towards the truck in strong winds. As am I. 🤠

 

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Pink Goes With Everything

Our second Tie o’ the Day is a plaid Nicole Miller design. Shirt’s another Old Navy polo. Thus, here’s a tiny clash fashion look for this evening’s gallivanting. Bright colors = happy happy, joy joy! (Thank you, Ren and Stimpy.)

This little pink bow tie is another show of support for Whitney Shurtz, who continues to battle breast cancer. She’s doing the fighting. The least we can do is do the supporting. Do your part to support anyone you know who faces this suffering. As important as financial help is for those who are ill, it is not the only need. Do what you can to support their families and friends, as well. The person with the disease needs to know that the people they love are being supported too. It is one less worry for them to carry, while they fight the cancer that dogs them.

Tblog-lodites, hug the people you love as often as you can. And tell them what they mean to you, over and over again.

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Driving, With Purebreds On Board. And Neil, Again, It’s Neil

Tie o’ the Day #1 is a snappy IZOD, on a coral Old Navy pocket polo. This is not clash fashion, so it’s an intelligible, understated ‘fit.

So I’m sitting’ on my butt in C-burg Monday evening, after we had just driven up from Deltabama Sunday afternoon. And out of nowhere Suzanne exclaimed, “I forgot the pillow cover pieces I made, and I need them ASAP!”😫 Anyhoo… This morning I pottied the pups and gassed up Vonnegut Grace, then we embarked on our Big Ride to See Grandma–which term they have learned means seeing Grandma and pooping in Grandma’s yard to their canine hearts’ content. And now, after I gather Suzanne’s pile o’ craftiness from her craftiness table, the dogs and I will be on the road again–off on our Big Ride to See Suzanne, which term they have learned means having fun running up and down the stairs to follow Helen as she does housework, and writes at her desk in the loft, and generally goes from room to room doing things that are mysteries to mutts.

No, I’m not done yapping about the Neil Diamond concert. I keep thinking of tidbits to tblog about. Today’s next little story is two thousand words–as in the cliche, “A picture’s worth a thousand words.” Hence, check out the two pix below. The first is us waiting for the concert to begin. The second is us still waiting for Neil to come onto the stage. Please note my closed eyes in the second pic. Clearly, I am taking over for Mom in the eyes-always-closed-in-photos department. In all her 86 years, Mom has only been able to keep her eyes open in about four pix. Until this selfie, my eyes have never been closed in a picture. I guess Mom’s closed-eye talent is my inheritance. Thank you, Mother.

 

 

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Here A Ball, There A Ball, Everywhere A Ball, Ball

Welcome to (Bow) Tie o’ the Day #2. It appears to be made by DRY CLEAN ONLY. It has no other label on its tie-pidermis. It was probably created by Sister Who Wishes To Remain Nameless. It most likely calls itself Bow Tie Which Wishes To Remain Designerless.

Shirt is a short-sleeved Bugatchi, covered in a bunch of pastel blue (and a darker hue of blue) circles, on a field of yet a lighter blue. And yes, the circles resemble balls. And speaking of balls, I’ve told you before that even Mom thought Vinnie had cute ones. I have also referred to them as Vinnie’s Christmas Balls. Well, here is Roxy with her new holiday Easter Balls. She got right into the whole Easter colors theme for this picture. Notice that she made her left eye turn bright green for the tblog, while simultaneously turning her right eye a springtime yellow. The tblog models have all been wonderfully cooperative and gracious. Note that Roxy is, however, without neckwear. She has such a ball-track mind that when one is within her mouth’s reach, she can’t remember how to tie a Tie o’ the Day. I gotta learn her to multi-task.

 

 

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And Another Thing About Neil Diamond

Tie o’ the Day #1 is giving us a no-named designer, licensed by PEANUTS. Ah, Woodstock! Flying with an Easter egg. I love me my Charlie Brown/Peanuts characters. Pigpen is my fave, engulfed for time and all eternity in that cloud o’ dust. Even his Easter egg would be dusty, I’m sure. Shirt is from Urban Pipeline–a Kohl’s manufacturer. The shirt’s scenery sets a warm attitude for us all. So sing some Patsy Cline with me: “See the pyramids along the nile…”

And here’s a Chuck Brown aside: When Boston was born, his head was…interesting. His head was a Charlie Brown head. Robbie was paranoid about Bos’s head’s shape, and about how it loomed over his minuscule body. Of course, Bos’s head took its proper shape in no time at all. And Bos’s body grew into it (under it?) just fine. I still see a hint of a round, Chuck-esque cranium on Bos, but he is one handsome charmer.

The other thing about Neil Diamond, as promised by the above heading: That man can still sing. Powerful, full-on voice. Hasn’t lost a beat. In fact, I think I prefer his older voice. It is a touch deeper, with just a pinch of gravel. And I mean “gravel” in a good way. A Bonnie Raitt way. A Leonard Cohen way. And Suzanne declared Mr. Diamond officially still hot to look at. Suzanne does not lie, so believe her.

 

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Dog Treats For Their “Owners”

Tie o’ the Day #2 is a sweet little slice o’ spring orange, from IZOD. Got some purty yeller and sky blue stripes on this Old Navy shirt. The shirt is long-sleeved. However, today is one of those days near the end of winter, when no matter what you wear, you’re wrong. Too warm for jeans and long sleeves. Too cool for shorts and a t-shirt. After changing clothes from head-to-toe for the third time, I threw in the towel and got back into pajamas at around Judy o’ clock.

The picture Tie o’ the Day is presenting below is evidence of my Find o’ the Day. Voila! A new form of doggie breakfast! Mmmm…faux sliced pig flesh and chicken embryos for teethy pups!

And we all know the not-secret about our consumer culture and our canine members: Dogs don’t have $$$. Golly, mutts don’t even have pockets! Dogs don’t give a shucks about how their rawhide chews look. These doggie goodies are made FOR US, as “owners”! And even knowing this, I gladly took the bait and bought these chews for our mutts to have clever, fabulous-looking brunches for the week. And I won’t deny that I also wanted to present them on Tie o’ the Day! 👔🐶

 

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TMI

Tie o’ the Day #1. As per usual, a Stacy Adams. Swell Easter colors. Tasso Elba button-down completes the Easter-ness, despite the fact that Rowan gave me this shirt for Christmas. He knows my style well.

Anyhoo…I’ve been experiencing what I call my “severed head” or “crazy head” for the past couple of months. Who knows exactly what starts its trajectory. But I know enough about where my bipolarity has me right now to know that despite some big changes/decisions I’m making right now in my life, what my head is going through is not situational. The various life-changes (I detest that term) are certainly variables in the life of my head. But these changes are not the cause of the inner turmoil.

And I understand my bipolarity enough to know how to deal with it. I have a host of coping mechanisms. I know what is and is not a good idea to try to accomplish in each of the stations of the cross of my mental state at any given time. The inside of my head is best described as a pendulum, and a thing I’ve learned about being bipolar is that wherever the pendulum moves–and how fast or slow it moves–it will ALWAYS move. It will always swing back to the other side. And it will always wear a bald trail along the path it plods. Sometimes it even stops for a while at the bottom of the arc it travels. The trick is to be patient enough to move through the tumult until the pendulum swings to a more habitable place.

 

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Back To Yesterday

So…

First church nuisance: At church yesterday morning, when the 2nd not-the-bishop guy was opening the meeting, Mom said, “I can’t hear him!” But she said it more loudly than any misbehaving child in the chapel. Hers was that loudness with which hard-of-hearing folks speak, cuz they think if they can’t hear, neither can you. And sure enough, the 2nd not-the-bishop guy spoke louder, even though he was perfectly hearable before Mom’s little outburst. Mom is louder than Tigmond is in church. And Tigmond does not have an inside/church voice anywhere in his little soul, even when he’s behaving properly.

Second church nuisance: That would be me and Sister Who Wishes To Remain Nameless. Sitting in the pew ahead of us was a little girl who was probably around 18 months. Well, she and I like to wave at kids and pull faces at them and do a little peekaboo with them. We are serving our  “church mission” thusly, I suppose. Anyhoo…. At some point, I pulled out a tiny stuffed doggie from my “diaper bag” and gave it to the little princess. And then I said to Sister Who Wishes To Remain Nameless, “I really should tell the parents of the kids we go out of our way to amuse that we aren’t child predators. We just like to amuse kids in church.” (FYI My “diaper bag” is what I call the messenger bag Suzanne made me to take to church. I have it stocked with my pens and notebooks, and with toys and crayons for the herd of grandnieces and grandnephews who might need stuff to do in Sacrament Meeting. And also, I keep Mom’s water in said diaper bag. She tends to choke after partaking of the sacrament water. I don’t think that is an omen or symbol of any spiritual thing Mom has going on.)

I also remarked to Sister Who Wishes To Remain Nameless that we are like a funeral or wedding reception line. When the kids come into the chapel, they form a kind of loose line in the aisle, in our direction. Then they walk, one-by-one, through our pew to give us and Mom our hugs. I suppose this is a nuisance for those who are trying to get to seats past them while they hog the aisles to give us some sugar.

After church, and after an after-church nap, Suzanne and I drove back to C-burg. If we are in two cars for thew excursion, we caravan. Deja is always the lead car, and Vonnegut Grace follows.

And after we got home, Suzanne spent a couple of hours sifting through a week’s worth of mail. I watched Major Crimes. Our day was still not done though. We headed to SLC to the Neil Diamond concert, courtesy of Sister Who Wishes To Remain Nameless. She had given us the tickets, much to our grateful surprise.

About 30 years ago, Suzanne accompanied Sister Who Wishes To Remain Nameless to a Neil Diamond concert at The Salt Palace, a night after Suzanne and I went to the same concert. Suzanne and Sister Who Wishes To Remain Nameless are Neil groupies. I’m ok with him, but I’m pretty much just a tag-along to his concerts. (I didn’t imbibe at the show, but I did notice the vendors were selling beer for $9 a cup. That is not right.)

And you are wondering what tie I wore to the concert, I’m sure. The answer is: YOU DON’T WEAR A TIE TO A NEIL DIAMOND CONCERT!

So now you have the skinny on my busy Sabbath. I shall return to the tblog with today’s Tie o the Day #1 in just a bit. Haven’t decided on my day’s clash fashion yet. It will help me decide on an outfit to get out of my pajamas.

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Church Nuisances, Funeral Line, Big Ride, Neil Diamond

How is that heading for a teaser? And you still have to wait for the skinny on it all, cuz we are on the move. Not one extra minute so far today for tie stories and/or spiritual substance from the tblog. Cross your fingers, and I promise I will get a real post to y’all ASAIL. (See CAST O’ WORDS for a translation.)

Church Bow Tie o’ the Day is a Stacy Adams, yet again. And shirt is a Bugatchi, yet again. Easter colors and hues abound on both. Snow and wind snapped off icy tree limbs all over D-ville during the night, but I refuse to be thwarted from my holiday colors.