Pre-Blizzard Style. . .

Much colder with heavy skies here today. According to the weather forecast, we are to have high winds and a few inches of snow beginning late this afternoon, lasting until Friday morning.

So, off to the vacuum cleaner repair shop and cobbler to drop a pair of boots belonging to the Grand Duchess before a 1pm Zoom meeting. And remember. Even when winter weather is on the way, one can still dress presentably for those inevitable last-minute trips out ahead of the snow and treacherous driving. We don't want to look like a shambling mound of soiled laundry now, do we?

Before you ask, the trip out did not include a run to the supermarket for milk, bread, and bathroom tissue as seems to be the case with so many others ahead of winter weather. Something I noticed years ago when I managed a department for several years in a supermarket outside of Philadelphia and was wryly amused, as an early 20-something, by the shopping habits of the general public. I mean, come on. It's not like we were way out in the Canadian Rockies cut off from civilization until late spring for goodness' sake. Even then, Berks County was hardly remote.

But I digress. Back to attire.

The stars of the show today are a favorite Norwegian sweater from L.L. Bean but actually knitted in Norway along with the venerable duck shoes and one of several pairs of Land's End corduroy jeans. The latter are my go-to wear for the lower half between October and mid-May each year when it typically warms up enough for shorts around the homestead.

But this morning, trailing my long red stocking cap, I resembled a deranged Norwegian nisse behind the wheel of a Subaru Outback as I drove into and across East Lansing toward the sole shoe repair shop left in the Lansing area (pun intended). Fortunately, it is right next door to the vacuum cleaner repair shop, so almost like killing two birds with one stone. Filled the car with gas on the way home once headed back in this direction. So, out and back in just over an hour.

-- 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