Ugly Sweaters

12/11/2014

I have never felt the need to adorn myself with seasonal clothing, particularly sweaters!  But according to the paper today, I'm definitely in the minority - who knew?

I turned to my trusty Google to search for ugly Christmas sweaters.  To my surprise there were a lot of hits.  At Macy's, for example, you can buy yourself an ugly Christmas sweater kit.  The kit includes everything you need to make a custom ugly sweater! This kit includes your sweater, felt accessories, glitter glue, jingle bells and much more!  This kit is on sale right now for $24.99, such a bargain.

• Cotton
• Machine washable
• Imported
• Unisex ugly sweater kit
• Crew neck; long sleeves
• Kit comes with red sweater, sheet white felt, reindeer, snowflakes, pom poms, glue, felted red bows, googley eyes, assorted ornaments, green glitter glue, jingle bells, wrapped presents, gold bead necklace & a sewing kit

This sweater gets my vote for being truly ugly.  I bet you'll all agree.

 

 
Apparently, you can buy "ugly" on Amazon, Target, Walmart and on a website "tipsyelves.com".  You can also buy an ugly Christmas suit - you'll have to see it to believe it.  I'm sure that anyone of these is at the top of Jeff's list!!!!

 

So this Christmas, like all the others I've had, I'll be dressed in plain vanilla fashion.   I know I'm just no fun.  Sorry.

Today is National Ugly Christmas Sweater day, so you'd better get your ugly on!

P

Plane Crash

12/20/2014

We had another local plane crash this week that killed the three people in the plane, as well as a mother and her two children that were in the house.  The plane crashed into the house and burst into flames.  Unfortunately, the mother and her children never stood a chance of survival.

Plane crashes always get a lot of media attention, and this one was so tragic, that it will remain in the news for days, perhaps even weeks.

Of course the media was able to find out that the pilot of the plane had crashed at the same airport ten years ago.  Pilot error or mechanical?  It will be quite a while before NSB will be able to make a determination.  Obviously, even if you assign blame to the pilot, it won't bring back those people who died.

Jeff and I have longed touted the advantage of our plane with a built-in parachute that you can use if your engine fails, for example.  As a friend of ours said this week, it was too bad that the plane wasn't a Cirrus.  The parachute aboard a Cirrus plane saves lives, a lot of lives.  

There have been several plane crashes in our area over the last few months and somehow it feels like planes are just dropping from the sky.  This plane is a Cirrus and I know that when we are flying somewhere, there is a calm that comes over me, just knowing that we have a safer way to land if something goes wrong while we're flying.

P

Hallmark and Lifetime Movies

12/8/2014

Yes folks it's that time of the year.  What time of the year you ask?  The showing of "schmaltzy (sp?) movies with commercials heavily sweetened, especially if you're on the Hallmark channel.  

To be fair, I love these holiday movies, they are just so absolutely perfect!  It's cold, there's a touch of snow, and everyone loves, eventually, everybody.  They are all so predictable and yet I set my Tivo to record each and every one of them.  

Last night my holiday television watching went to a new low.  I watched the movie about Grumpy the cat.  The cat is adorably cute, which is about the only good thing I can say about the movie.  I'm not one to give up on a sinking ship, or movie, so I hung on to the end, but I have no idea why.  The movie was genuinely that bad.

In years past I would watch movies that I had seen before, some of them, more than once.  This year I decided I would be more discerning and only watch new movies.  Even though I'm only going to watch new movies, there is still a lot of them scheduled for December.

I think the allure of these Christmas movies is that the whole family appears to get along and any troubles that the family encounters is quickly dealt with.  Would that real life be that simple!

Happy television watching.

P

Just Call Me Chester!

12/6/2014

There maybe some of you out there who doesn't know who "Chester" is/was.  Chester was in the television show Gunsmoke (again, you have to be of a certain "age" to know about that show.  Anyway, Chester walked with a limp, and now I do too!

Yesterday I took myself off to the podiatrist because my right foot was giving me some trouble (i.e., pain)!  Apparently, I have a bone spur on my heel which is causing the arch of my foot to be very painful.  I was outfitted with not one, but three different "things" to wear on my right leg.  There is the walking cast in a beautiful shade of gray and black equipped with more Velcro straps than I've seen in a long time.

I also have a walking shoe - again Velcro.  I'm not supposed to use that shoe often, only when I have to drive.  That shoe is again black and gray.  And the piece d' resistance a boot like thing that I wear for only one hour at night before bed.  And I bet you can guess the color!

While I was getting instructions for getting in (harder) and out (easier) of each of these semi-torture devices, I wondered why these kind of devices can't come in another color - red comes to mind or patterned.  Is there some medical law that says if you have hurt yourself, you must not only be stuck walking around with a cast that goes clump when you walk, but it must be butt ugly as well?  I'm going to be limping around until the end of next week.  Stairs are particularly difficult because the boot is so heavy and I'm sure that I shouldn't be overdoing it with housework or cooking!  Luckily, I have a large stack of library books and a fire in the fireplace - so I'm all set.

P

Protests

12/4/2014

You would have to be living under a rock not to notice the protests in Missouri, New York and in D.C.  Our regular television show was overridden with breaking news from New York.  Rows of police and people walking down the roads carrying signs and chanting.  Traffic, obviously, was at a standstill and I can't even imagine what the drivers were thinking while they were sitting amid all the protesters.  

I never have, nor will I ever, make my opinions known when it comes to situations like yesterday's protesting.  I will say, without knowing all the facts, that it seems like the police have perhaps been overreaching in trying to turn around rampant chaos.  I know that I would definitely not want to be a policeman, particularly in today's environment.  

While watching the breaking news last night, got me to reminiscing about what I now consider the peaceful 60's.  Oh we had some drugs, hippies and peace rallies, but compared to what is going on presently, it was, for the most part, a peaceful time.   

I know that we will never return to a simpler way of living, and on some level that's a shame.  In the past, we didn't have 24/7 media blitz or social networking - and we all managed to survive!

P

Luck

12/3/2014

There is an old saying in the Bassett house that if we didn't have bad luck, we wouldn't have any at all!  And that saying was never more true than this morning when Jeff took our car back to the dealer for service.  

Our regular mechanic handles all the ordinary stuff like oil change, rotating tires, etc.  But when we had the car in last week for him to look at, he told us that we needed to take the car back to the dealer.  He also happened to mention that the repair, if not under warranty, was probably going to be expensive!  

Jeff made an appointment for this morning to take the Benz in and had arranged to get a loaner car since we have to go to Baltimore this afternoon.  The service writer felt bad (or not) when he told Jeff that our warranty expired on November 15th!  Curses, fouled again.

The car has to be fixed, so there is little you can do.  Leave the car, hope that we won't have to take our a second mortgage on the house to pay for the repairs!  They did, however, give us a bright red little Mercedes loaner car.  And, the service people at the dealership are, of course, helpful as well as nice.  

Did we need a loaner car?  Hmm, probably not.  We have the little "z" sitting in the driveway, but it's so ugly out today, and I hate being in that car with the top up - something about close places.

I don't remember the last time we took the car back to the dealer, so in my mind, the loaner  is just a perk, that I'm getting for "free" (ha)!

I hope it's sunny where you are, because it's downright gloomy here.

P

Phases of a Life

12/1/2014

Krikee, it's December already!  It seems like just a day ago, we had the a/c cranked up and swore at hot as the sun steering wheels.  Once it gets real cold, then we'll be complaining about icy hands as well as cold seats and steering wheels.  Let's face it, we're not always happy with the weather - and, there isn't anything we can do about it.

As a teenager, I wanted to be in my 20's because then I would be an adult and be my own person, more or less. 

I was married at 25 and had babies, 18 months apart.  To the children who are only 18 months apart, it's delightful.  They have a nearly constant playmate.  To a mother, and a working mother as well, it meant dealing with sickness, generally times two and potty training one right after the other.  When I was a new mother, employers had not yet "seen the light" about helping out working mothers.  I absolutely hated calling into the office to let them know I wouldn't be in because of one illness or another.  I'm happy to say, this many years later, employers are better about meeting the needs of parents.

I pretty much sailed through my 40's and 50's.  The boys became adults, bought homes and moved away.  And I was an empty nester before I even realized what was happening.  People let me tell you that the time between a slightly annoying child to an adult is really short.  It only seems like a long time when you're in the midst of dealing with your child's issues.

Well once you've entered your 60's then the countdown begins on enrolling in Medicare and supplemental insurance.  If you dilly dally, there are penalties of time that the government puts on you for being late to enroll.

Today, is December 1st and as of today I am a Medicare card senior citizen.  When you're young you believe you will never be old, but then the calendars keep turning over and then you have hit retirement age, if you choose.  You can keep working as long as you like or need to, but being on Medicare is not an option.  You must enroll and then you keep your fingers crossed that the doctors you have been with for years, take Medicare.  Argh, getting old is not for sissies.  I don't mind turning 65.  What I do mind is the endless parade of junk mail that I've been receiving for months offering me the "best" supplemental gap insurance.  Thankfully, Jeff made the decisions regarding gap insurance for both of us, and all new gap insurance junk mail can be fed into the shredder!

P