Casual Mid-December 2015 Style. . .

The top half for today, a cold, blustery one with some snowflakes in the air.

Not much to report style-wise on this end. With our move from our temporary digs on Monday this week, I've mostly been up to my waist in cardboard moving boxes and packing materials as I've tried to get the first floor of the new house in order at least. Wednesday saw us touring what will be our son's new school come January, so I did manage to pull on a blue and white University Stripe ocbd shirt, red wool necktie, tweed jacket, corduroy pants, and a pair of long-wing brogues for that, but no photographs sadly.

However, this morning, I had to journey into campus to pickup several student papers that were left in my mailbox AFTER the deadline on the final day of class last week. The assumption by young people that this is some how permissible and ok drives me crazy. Especially when it has not been discussed and arranged with me beforehand (a policy laid out clearly in the course syllabi by the way). But that is another subject entirely. Let's not get started on it today.

Anyway, since I wanted to look presentable but did not feel like shaving (I know, I know), I went for a slightly more casual look today, which consisted of the items shown in these two photographs. Not shown beneath this sweater is one of my several light blue ocbd shirts. This is just one more example that demonstrates how a man can be casual and comfortable with just a little forethought and care. . . and without straying anywhere near sloppiness. I'm still wearing this gear (minus the duffle coat and scarf) as I type this particular blog entry.

My favorite item shown here is the L.L. Bean Norwegian fisherman's sweater, the genuine 'Made in Norway' item. I was given a very one by Mom and Step-dad for my birthday in November 1992, which I still have and wear, and purchased a navy and cream one after Christmas at a substantial discount in January 1993. I also jumped on this one when I saw if for sale at An Affordable Wardrobe in September 2014when Giuseppe was still selling vintage and used menswear online. While I have and wear a couple of much fancier sweaters made by Dale of Norway, my favorites remain these fairly simple cream and charcoal ones which go with just about anything.

Happy (Almost) Winter Solstice from Lower Michigan!

-- Heinz-Ulrich

And the bottom half. Glad I was able to locate my Bean Boots and 'duck shoes' quickly. We are supposed to have several inches of snow in the night.

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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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