Category: Face masks

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Reminder: Call Your Mom, If You Still Can

Here’s a picture of me actually calling Mom yesterday. Well, I didn’t really wear the face mask, but I thought it clashed nicely with my outfit as a whole, so I wore it for the photo. And, to be honest, I didn’t really call Mom on this obsolete phone which now hangs in my garage. But it’s the phone that hung on my family’s kitchen wall for 60 years, so I knew it had to be in the snapshot. Mom was the official house phone-answerer. Dad had a compulsive aversion to answering the phone—except when Mom was out of town overnight, and then he sat at the kitchen table, waiting for her call.

Please note the smudges on the bottom of the receiver. Mom was probably in the middle of mixing a batch of cookies when the phone last rang. Mom always answered the phone (and she was always cooking something or other as she answered), and then she’d use her shoulder to hold the phone to her ear while she washed her hands, gabbing away like a pro to whoever was on the other end of the line. I’m so glad I decided not to wash the phone before I re-hung it here with me. Those smudges have lasting meaning.

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Grimacing For Travel

I love my world map Bow Tie o’ the Day. We haven’t traveled anywhere since the pandemic came around, and I’m getting itchy to see some new sights. I was thinking I might choose where to go next by sticking a pin in Bow Tie’s map. But just the thought of sticking a pin in any bow tie made me grimace, as you can clearly see.

Last night, when Suzanne was at the puzzle, she asked me where I want to go when we finally feel like we can go on a bigly adventure again. I said I wasn’t sure where our next destination should be. Suzanne doesn’t fool me, though. She knows darn well where I want to go: Traverse City, Michigan. She’s just not sure she wants to go there. I’ve read about it, and it seems like it could be a laid-back place to play. It’s tourist-friendly, without being too touristy. And we’ve never been to that proverbial neck of the proverbial woods. Now, I don’t mean to make this post self-serving, but if any of you run into Suzanne in the near future, I’d appreciate it if you could sort of organically drop the name “Traverse City” into your conversation with her. Maybe she’ll start thinking it’s her idea to go there. That would really help me out a lot.🤓🤣

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Got Books?

Tie o’ the Day is a splotchy, skinny tie. I generally prefer wide ties, just because the bigger the tie, the more there is for all to see. I like my bow ties that way too. Books Face Mask o’ the Day seemed appropriate since I am tidying up my various piles, stacks, and desks all around the house this morning, and every place I tidy, there are bookmarked books I am currently reading. There’s nothing new about that: I read, therefore, I am—wherever I go. Since I like to take an accounting of things to share with y’all, I did a Books-I’m-Currently-Reading Tally. I don’t know if you’ll be pleased or disgusted to know that I am in the process of reading 17 different books, simultaneously. But what can I say? I’m in every room in the house on any given day, and I never know exactly when I will be in the mood for reading somebody else’s writing. I don’t want to miss a thing.

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A Tidbit O’ Wisdom

Floppy Bow Tie o’ the Day gets kinda lost in my shirt, but “lost” is as fun a look as anything else. I’ve actually been lost in books today—moving them into organized-by-author stacks. When organizing your library, it doesn’t matter what organizing principle you use, as long as you use it consistently throughout. I’m toying with the idea of some day arranging the books in order of when I first read each tome. The problem with that organizing principle is that it would work only for me, and Suzanne would be up a creek without a bookmark.

I was also going through magazines so I can toss them. In one of the magazines, I read a simple and yet profound quote in an interview with the Tony-winning, Emmy-winning, Oscar-winning actor, Viola Davis. Speaking about how some people struggle to feel valuable even in their own lives, she said the following: “There are all these tickets into worth. In this culture you’re always showing someone your worth. But the only real ticket into worth is that you were born. That’s it. Over and out.” You are just as valuable as anyone else. You are neither more valuable, nor are you less valuable. To deliberately injure someone in any way is to believe that you are more valuable than they are. I’m here to kindly tell you that you are not.

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We, The People, Watching TV

What exactly does one wear to watch a Presidential Inauguration on television? I don’t know what “one” wears, but I wear a red-white-and-blue plaid shirt and a red-white-and-blue houndstooth Face Mask o’ the Day for those who might drop by to join my socially distanced watch party. And most importantly, I wear my United States Constitution fabric Bow Tie o’ the Day. I celebrate my freedom to make my dapper fashion statements appropriate to the historical occasion.

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Make Centerville Less Windy Again

Last night on the news, we heard we would be under a High Wind Warning mid-way through the night and into mid-morning, and I woke up this morning to the sound of solid objects spinning around outside our house. I saw garbage bags flying in the neighborhood, and Suzanne told me she saw hunks of tin flying in our street. I swear I thought for a minute I had woken up back in Delta, where the wind comes whippin’ down the plain 24/7. But no, I was here in Centerville, where bigly winds are not the norm. Today’s winds, however, were interfering with our garbage and recycling pick-up. I decided not to even take our cans to the curb. This windstorm was nothing like the one that came through a few months ago, which uprooted trees everywhere in our neck of the woods, and took out the power for three days. I am at the age that I calculate the severity of any kind of storm based on how much tv I have to miss because the power is out. Flying sheets of tin or not, I judge this morning’s storm to ultimately be a lightweight piece o’ weather, because the television didn’t lose power for even one second. I was not inconvenienced one bit. That’s my kind of weather.

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I Have An Idea

As we get ready to witness our country’s transition from one Presidential administration to the next tomorrow, I propose we all behave like adult patriots—instead of like spoiled brats who exploit their rights without shouldering the ever-present responsibilities that secure those rights. In short, how ’bout we all act like grown-up’s? Just a thought.🇺🇸

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The Prodigal Bow Tie Is Found

About two minutes after I posted about not being able to find my peanut M&M’s bow tie this morning, I immediately ran onto it. Yes, it was in the last place I looked—because there’s no reason to keep looking for something, after you’ve found it.

Here I am, still enjoying my Pajama Day of reading, writing, and no ‘rithmetic. My bag o’ M&M’s functioned as a real-life face mask this afternoon, when I had to answer the door and didn’t have a mask handy. I put the bag of candy in front of my face and answered the door to the masked Amazon prime delivery person. I am pleased to say that my candy face mask caused the prime guy to convulse in a fit of laughter, for which he gleefully thanked me as he went off to the rest of his work day.

Note to self: Eat this bag o’ candy, so you have an excuse to buy more.

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#wearthedangmaskcorrectly

I could not find my peanut M&M’s bow tie anywhere in the Tie Room this morning. It was my intended Bow Tie o’ the Day. I know it’s not lost. It’s in the Tie Room somewhere, just not in its usual place. But I’m in the mood to wear that particular bow tie, and no other. Never to be deterred, I know how to improvise when necessary. Still, not finding one of my trusted bow ties in its place discombobulated me to the point that I declared a Pajama Day for myself. I’m passing my pj morning on the love seat—reading, writing, and dozing off. I also discovered another use for my Face Mask o’ the Day. It works niftily as a sleep mask.

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A Winkler, Not A Snollygoster

Bow Tie o’ the Day gives you a good hint about what I ate for lunch today. I have a thing for all things ice cream, I will always admit it. Face Mask o’ the Day is named “Winkler” by the company that created it. I believe I could accurately use the winking face emoji at the end of a high percentage of the sentences I write or say. A wink is sort of the aura I give off, I think, in writing and in person. My fashion kind of winks too, I guess you could say. I’m serious, in a not serious way. And I’m not serious, in a serious way. It’s exhausting to have a brain that conjures ideas like that. I have made my peace with dwelling in irony and sarcasm on top of clarity and wisdom. Apparently, so has my wardrobe.