It's been a fairly cool summer so far. . .

A snapshot of the winter version of Heinz-Ulrich's wardrobe, featuring a variety of tweed, heavy weight wool, and corduroy odd jackets along with too many pairs really of wool flannel and corduroy dress pants.

We've had a fairly cool summer thus far in our neck of the American Midwest. Really only about ten days or so of beastly hot weather in the latter half of July. The first few days of August have been delightful, but I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. Surely, there is a prolonged period of unpleasant summer conditions yet to come during the rest of this month or after September 1st?

Still, the below average temperatures make me look forward to October, when the Fall season really gets underway here, and things cool off enough to break out the the tweed along with other heavier weight garments in a serious way. Until then, clothes like these are simply too much for the first six or seven weeks of the Autumn semester at my small university, which begins in about three week's time. Sigh. Time to revise course syllabi and make sure the book orders I submitted weeks ago are on the way to the bookstore. Where in the heck did the summer go? It seems like we just returned from our family vacation at the end of June.

But. . . There is some neat stuff to look forward to wearing as the countdown moves yours truly ever closer the start of another school term. Among other things, I've got a newly acquired and refurbished pair of stunning Allen Edmonds shoes in reddish-tan waiting in the wardrobe plus a beautiful cream-colored tweed jacket, which I must have altered in the meantime. Currently undergoing minor alterations at the tailor's are some mid-gray flannel trousers and a couple of other odd jackets for warmer weather.

The best part is that everything was thrifted last spring for only a few dollars except the shoes, which came from an E-bay purchase for an equally modest outlay. A new pair of heels at the cobbler's plus a spit shine here at home made 'em look almost new. Whoever said that dressing well must requires scads of money? On the contrary, it's certainly something well within the reach of average guys, requiring only a small learning curve, time, and careful shopping. In plain language, it means giving a damn about our appearance and how we present ourselves to the world. So, how about kicking up your personal style a notch or three?

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Up North Style. . .

Bad Dad makes a friend. YMP and Bad Dad on the shores of Lake Michigan. Or was that Crystal Lake? The Grand Duchess takes a selfie in her kayak. How NOT to impress the girls sunning themselves along the river. YMP and Bad Dad kayaking on the Platte River headed toward Loon Lake. J ust back from a week in Northern Michigan in a charming and spacious house on the banks of the Betsie River outside of Thompsonville. A largely pleasant seven days despite some challenging episodes with the Young Master, who has picked up some very questionable habits and language from his friends in the 8th Grade during the school year just ended. But otherwise, we enjoyed ourselves and contemplated remaining for a few days longer since the house was available. In the end, we decided to return home as planned originally since neither my wife, nor I wanted to spend the remaining days chained to our computers in Zoom meetings from our vacation destination. I actually managed to leave the laptop and ip

Mid-June Thursday Style. . .

A nother pretty typical variation on the theme for late spring, summer, and very early fall. I'm a huge fan of Madras and have several such shirts in the seasonal rotation. Lightweight, exceedingly comfortable, and even dressy when pressed and tucked in, which is the usual way of things here at Totleigh in the Wold. Now, if I had my druthers, I'd still rather be skiing the trails in the upper half of "The Mitten" (of Michigan), in the Upper Peninsula, or Ontario. But summers ain't so bad either, and I'd look pretty funny walking around in cross-country ski attire during June. -- Heinz-Ulrich

A Lazy Saturday at the End of June. . .

A sleepy first half of the weekend here at Totleigh. Warmer and quite humid ahead of an approaching cool front here in Mid-Michigan. Perfect for yet another pair of chino shorts an a seersucker shirt -- tucked in of course -- with the usual leather deck shoes and ribbon belt. Otherwise, not much accomplished beyond a page or so of writing and monkeying around with audio settings for an upcoming podcast episode. However, I was not completely useless yesterday! I made a huge fruit salad for dinner, which the Grand Duchess and I enjoyed a short while later at the table on the back porch. The Young Master, as is his wont on Saturday evenings, took his dinner on a tray in the TV room upstairs where he whiled away a couple of hours on Flight Simulator, flying some sort of commercial airliner to some destination across the Atlantic or Pacific. I would have loved that sort of technology at about nine or 10 way back during the late 1970s, aka The Stone Age. As it is, my sister and

Classic Style

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