A Saturday Visit to the Tailor. . .

It's 10:30 Saturday morning, and I am still waking up with the first mug of coffee, and the two cats milling around here in my office at home. A dark, wet, and dreary day outside, but I've got much activity planned since the Grand Duchess and Young Master have decided to visit Chicago for the day and left very early this morning.

First off, and following a hot shower, a visit to my tailor to take in a new three-piece suit from J. Press for the usual minor alterations. It arrived yesterday, and was/is a gift to myself for some good news professionally speaking earlier this fall. And since three-piece suits are generally pretty hard to find in 2023, I leapt at the opportunity after spotting this particular number on the J. Press website two weeks back. A charcoal Donegal weave, very soft to the touch, and perfect for the cooler months, which here in Mid-Michigan are, conveniently, October through April, and sometimes well into May. So this one should get a lot of wear.

Then, it's off to run a few Christmas gift errands. Most of my shopping for the season long ago -- and well before Covid with its initial lock-downs -- migrated online. Nevertheless, there are a couple of things I have spotted that the Grand Duchess will enjoy on Christmas Morning and beyond. Once that errand is done, a few things at the supermarket, and then home again to enjoy the rest of the afternoon preparing the next batch of toy soldiers, 1/56 scale models actually, for painting.

Initially, I had planned to spend the day working through final student assignments, their course capstone projects, but that can wait until Monday and Tuesday next week. Time instead to play hooky and take a couple of days for myself. Sunday, I will record, process, mix, master, and post another episode of my podcast, an activity that, while time consuming, is actually a lot of fun, so not something I mind doing. But that is putting the cart before the horse.

Back to Saturday activities!

This evening, I plan to enjoy some coffee and possibly a dram or two of single malt by the fireside in the library with some Christmas music playing softly in the background. And who knows? I might actually crack open an actual work of fiction that has nothing at all to do with work pursuits. It used to happen now and then. Once upon a time, I was a great reader of fiction, and that habit, I think, ought to be resurrected as we approach the Christmas break with its related festivities and downtime.

-- Heinz-Ulrich

Comments

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

The Power of Ideas. . .

T he end is nigh! The autumn semester/term approaches. And while we still have almost two months of summer left according to the calendar, "Summer is over and gone," as the crickets sang in Charlotte's Web . At least for those of us who head back to the classroom in less than a month. In advance of a meeting with my program director late Monday morning, I spent about 40 minutes total during the weekend to jot down several ideas about planned workshops and related activities for the coming 2024-2025 academic year. At an opportune moment, I mentioned "I have a few ideas," and opened my leather portfolio. My director was highly receptive to almost everything I suggested, and we had a very productive planning session for just over 90 minutes. Just about everything I sketched out on Sunday aligns with his own ideas. It's nice when meetings go that well, and two related things occur to me in hindsight. One, it pays to exercise...

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 19...

Classic Style

Search This Blog