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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.

Whoosh! Tie o’ the Day is a Jerry Garcia. Shirt is a Quicksilver from about a decade ago. We aren’t clashy today. We’re dashing! And not through the snow, in a one-horse open sleigh. We are just wearing the dashy tie!

This get-up has been a practical choice for a day of erranding in Deltassippi’s “uptown” district. When you are in a hurry to get stuff done, and don’t have time to engage in a zillion conversations with every human being you’re gonna run into at the store or bank or post office, etc., you wanna wear garb that doesn’t scream for outside commentary. It is impossible to muffle definite clash. And when you are in The Sublime Clash Fashion Zone, people have a tendency to flock to interact with you.

As I’ve mentioned before, I am happiest as a loner/hermit. Attention is not what I seek. But also, Clash/Flash R Me. Clash feels like the right skin for me to live in. (I kinda wish I could be invisible and wear distracting ties that are only visible to me, in my own invisible-ness.) The quest for both flash and solitude is the enigma I inhabit. Being true to who I am requires that I find a way to navigate these two divergent paths in such a way as to make them one.

Nobody’s alone in this venture. Melding the totality of all the turns and corners we are, is what we all have to do. We live in infinite binaries. Think: work/home; public/private; individual/community….and on and on.

I think Robert Frost got it not quite right about those two roads that diverged in a yellow wood. You can’t choose just one road. Some roads choose you. To live your life, you somehow have to take both roads, and then some more. You even have to pave a few. And that’s what makes all the difference.

Be at peace, Kyle Weeda. University of Utah football games miss you already.

 

Tie o’ the Day is a purple harlequin design by Alfani. Shirt is a brushed cotton plaid by Sonoma. What I don’t know is this: Why are “flannel” shirts almost exclusively plaid? Is plaid inherently warmer than other patterns? This is one of those BIG QUESTIONS about our existence, I think. It’s right up there with, “Why are we here?” and “Is there life after death?”.

I want to collaborate with Mercedes on a book about questions people want answered the minute they get to the Pearly Gates. I call ’em Bucket Questions, cuz you have to die to find out the truth. This plaid/flannel shirt question is one of mine. In fact, I think most people’s Bucket Questions are pretty specific and could be answered succinctly. We simply want to know what’s up. Here are a few more questions I want answered:

• What is the big deal about soccer?
• How many certifiable fools were on the jury of O. J.’s murder trial?
• Who killed Jon Benet?
• Does Donald Trump stick his head in a cotton candy machine to build his hair?
• Why is Michael Strahan ubiquitous?
• Is there a special circle of Hell for the Dallas Cowboys and New York Yankees? (Oh, please, tell me that there is. And tell me that I’m not going there.)
• Is Araby waiting for me right behind those Gates?

C’mon. You know you have a bunch of your own bigly and/or minuscule questions flying around in your head, begging for answers. Make your own Bucket Question List. Share it. Just don’t be in a hurry to get into the Pearly-Gated Community, where the answers are waiting to meet their questions.

 

Tie o’ the Day welcomes y’all to an amorphous, alive adventure in Clash Fashion.

Shirt is by Bristol & Bull. Their shirts are catchy, but I do wish each cuff had the second hole, so a wearer could sport a pair of clever cuff links. The tie is a flowery design by pierre cardin, who clearly wanted to be like e. e. cummings. Just because the tie’s blooms are red, white, and blue, don’t go thinking I’m signifying any politics with this outfit. At least, not in this particular post.

The pairing of these two items is a mini-lesson in clash fashion: The tie must pop out visually from the shirt. A high pop-value is the major goal you’re reaching for if you are into this fashion trend. Well, “trend” isn’t the right word, since I’m the only person I actually know who dresses like this on purpose. Anyhoo…

This website is finally up and running, thanks to the magical Suzanne who gave birth to it. She was in labor with it far too long. And giving birth once is definitely enough for her–whether said birth is of a human or of a website. If she or I ever have the need to create another web page, we will be hiring a surrogate.

So Tie o’ the Day now has a spacious interwebby home, with a big yard and a wrap-around porch. But the ties and I will be unpacking and moving furniture around, so the tblog you see will be in flux for a while. And maybe a permanent flux, when all is said and done, is how this online endeavor can succeed in amusing and enlightening us.

Do not resist the Tie o’ the Day. Simon sez, “SUBSCRIBE”.