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This is the tblog for Tuesday, March 7, Day Three. Get-up #2. Here’s an Old Navy shirt from their PLAID collection. Remember that our Tie o’ This Week is from IZOD. It is kinda hard for me to stick with the same tie for an entire week, but I shall do it for the Clash Fashion cause. I hope this experiment is not monotonous for you.

Erin go Bragh/Braugh is the anglicization of the Irish language phrase, Eirinn go Brach, which basically means “Ireland Forever.”

I, however, prefer my own version: Error in go Bra! Loosely (pun intended) translated, this means that it is an error to wear a bra, unless absolutely necessary. Or, in even looser (pun intended again) words, “Bra-less Forever!”

 

 

 

Tuesday, Day Three, Outfit #1. Top o’ the mornin’ to ya! Here’s the Bugatchi o’ the Day! All I can say is Bugatchi better get its corporate butt in gear and start sponsoring me and this tblog. I mean–actual people actually ask me the for the actual brand name of these actual shirts, and they actually ask me where I actually purchase these actual shirts. (Nordstrom Rack, BTW. From the “clearance” rack.)

All this green clothing/neckwear–and St. Paddy’s Day– has put Ireland in my head, wall-to-wall. My favorite place in said country was just outside Lisdoonvarna, in County Clare. Ballinalacken Castle is a sprawling Victorian lodge, and it stands beside the 16th-century O’Brien castle ruins. “Castle ruins” is a bit of hyperbole, since what remains of the castle is a round, rock, silo-shaped remnant of the bottom of a turret.

The lodge itself is surrounded by 100 acres of wildflower meadows. And it is situated on a hill, with a panoramic view of the Atlantic, the Aran Islands, Galway Bay, and the Connemara Hills. (Heard of Connemara marble, anyone? Gorgeous.) Sat on that hill and watched the sun mosey its way over the Atlantic for hours, until it finally slipped under the horizon, then under the water, at almost 11 PM.

And one of the best spaces in the kinda haphazard insides of Ballinalacken Castle was a dark wood pub, in a corner about the size of a medium-sized walk-in closet. You know I was in a beer heaven I can’t belong in anymore.

The room we stayed in at Ballinalacken was the least roomy in the lodge, and the only room in the place that had no windows. That’s how we rolled through Ireland. Drove all day, saw whatever interested us. When we were done for the day, we’d find a pricey hotel. I’d walk up to the front desk and say, “We want your worst room.” (I had to go in alone and do the asking, cuz it embarrassed Shari. Not that she minded the pricey digs one bit.) So that’s how we stayed in expensive hotels we couldn’t otherwise afford, all over Ireland for two weeks in 1997. Can’t believe it was 20 years ago. I clearly had a groovy time, as evidenced by the fact that I still remember how to spell “Lisdoonvarna” and “Ballinalacken”.

 

Monday, Day Two, Garb o’ the Day #2. You guessed it: Shirt’s a Bugatchi. I mentioned in the previous tblog that I have always felt at home in flannel shirts, even while wearing ties. But I find I am changing my shirt preferences in my old age. I’m likin’ dressier shirts, especially my gaggle of Bugatchi’s. I have no idea why this is happening, except to say I’m still a work-in-progress, so I’m assuming this must be some kind of progress.

Here’s a thing I left out of my Sunday morning tblog about grief: Multitudes of people get hung up on the question of how a benevolent god can allow so much human tragedy and its resulting suffering. This has never been a philosophical thunk-it I’ve gotten tripped up by. I’ve always thought that we are the ones who allow it. I think that human beings must take responsibility to fix the problems we human beings have created. And we are, in fact, the creators of most of the small and bigly matters that cause the grief that thrives in this world (excluding most, but not all, weather-related disasters). It is our job to fix what’s wrong. I don’t think it  is okay to surrender to the way things are, figuring “it will all be made right in the next life”. That is a cowardly way to think. I can’t solve everything. You can’t solve everything. But if every person on the planet immediately starts taking care of their particular stewardships, and if we help our neighbors do the same, things will immediately improve.

Here’s Monday’s #1 Get-up o’ the Day. Shirt is a Tony Hawk. I’ve always been at home in flannel shirts. Grandpa Anderson wore them every day. They didn’t help him hear any better, that’s for sure. He did always have a soft mint in his shirt pocket for me. I knew he thought their peppermint scent covered up the smell of his cigarettes. We all let him think it. He was happy. Every Christmas I bought him the same gifts: Jergens lotion and Lipton tea bags. Gee, I wish my wants and needs were that simple. I oughta learn a thing or eight from that.

Grandma Anderson didn’t go out of town often; but when she did, Mom bought him a fried chicken dinner from Arctic Circle, and we drove it up to Oak City to feed him. He could go whole years without driving that 14 miles down to Delta. He did, however, make the trip each day his pet rat, Lady, was recovering from a malady at the vet’s. Ok, so Lady wasn’t really a pet rat. Lady (and Lady, Part Two, after the original Lady died) was an angry chihuahua. She only liked Grandpa, and was expert at chewing holes in every other person’s ankles.

And yes, there was an Arctic Circle in Delta when I was a kid. In fact, Mom worked there. Heck, Mom worked everywhere in Delta at some point. Van’s Grocery, Tolley Carpet, The Delmart, some jeans store I can’t remember the name of, the Delta High School lunch room, and Clara’s Cleaning at IPP. And don’t forget: she got fired from IPP for being a security risk!😁😂😜 She was not an extremist Muslim, nor an extremist Mormon. Way to go, IPP!

 

Tie o’ the Day #2 is the beginning of a beautiful week-long friendship. This vibrant green argyle tie is from Izod. And, yup, it is paired with yet another eye-boggling Bugatchi. Our fashion experience plans to carry us through the upcoming week with a single tie. The shirts will change. The tie will remain the same. And you will see that the limits of clash are, in fact, limitless.

[This post was created on the afternoon of Sunday, March 5. But the wind had its way with my electrical and technological aspects at the Beach House for a couple of days. Tomorrow is Wednesday, March 8. But it will be known to me as Tblog Ketchup Day, during which the Tie o’ the Days and I will catch y’all up on stories inspired by this talkative necktie.]

(Church Bow) Tie o’ the Day #1 is a jaunty Stacy Adams. Shirt is from Croft & Barrow. Jacket is from VanHeusen, Studio Collection. Pocket square is done in what is called a “puff fold”.  Ya just grab it in the center, shake it, and then put it in the pocket. Paisley, as always, is m-mmm gooooood.

I suppose you could say that today is a back-to-normal day. Even after mourning, things just go on. As they should. The lessons we learn from grief are right in front of us, if we will do the work to take them in. They will change us, no matter how much we have been injured throughout our lives. Life happens to us all, and that means we are dented from time to time. That is why it is so important to not create problems and drama for ourselves. There is enough hard damage, which is out of our control, that happens to us no matter how well we live our lives and treat other people.

A Grief Observed is a short book by C. S. Lewis, which he wrote after the death of his wife. It is written within a Christian and philosophical framework. Definitely worth a read, if you’re trying to understand grief and what it means for sad things to happen.

 

Tie o’ the Day.  University of Utah Utes colors for Kyle.

Kyle’s heart is the perfect size to hold his three kids tightly, forever.

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?!