Pondering the world

larger women need pretty dresses, too!

All right, you fashion designers out there, enough already! When are you going to recognize that the number of thin young women is a very small percentage of the population? As much as we'd all like to stay young forever, we get older and most of us get larger as well.

And we need fancy dresses for special events and formal occasions, too. How come when I pull a lovely dress off the rack, it's... size 6. Again. Oh, wait, this one's a size 2. If I find something in my size, it's a shapeless black bag. Oh look, a blue bag... a green bag... a red bag...

And while we're at it, let's talk about the "details" that designers add to dresses for larger women which only compound the insult--large floppy bows, ruffles around the neck and cuffs, buttons clear up to the chin, big puffy sleeves, and the list goes on. I saw it all yesterday as I was searching for a dress. Don't even get me started about the slinky, clingy fabrics that show every bump and bulge.

I certainly don't look like the lovely young woman in that pink dress up there, but I'm not large, either. And if I'm irritated about the lack of nice dresses for mature women, I can only imagine the frustration of women larger than me.

Un-skinny women, it's time to speak up!

If you think it won't work, it won't. (or how to kill an idea)

There are two easy ways to kill an idea or proposal in its infancy:  1) keep insisting that it won't work, because then it certainly won't; or 2) pick it apart and state all the reasons it's a bad idea.

Some people are the bosses or leaders who give the instructions--"do this." A lot of us have (or had) jobs where we had no choice but to execute the tasks, simply do what we were told. We immediately go into implementation mode:  How will I do this? What are the steps? What are the things that will have to be overcome to complete the task? Is there something which will make it difficult or impossible to complete it?

When an idea is being proposed, it's too easy to jump into that mode and start pointing out all of the roadblocks, problems, and challenges. In a group discussion, by the time someone has pointed out four or five difficulties, the idea is usually on its way out. It might even have been a great idea if some time was allowed for it to just sit and have people think about it without negative feedback--that's a "brainstorming" session. You may not bring up all the reasons why it won't work.

And if the only thing someone will do is keep repeating, "it won't work," then it won't, at least as far as that person is concerned. He's already closed his mind.

The rest of us will take that great idea, see the possibilities, overcome the challenges, and make it successful.

you can't fix "stolen"

Yesterday I was in the Phoenix airport waiting for our connecting flight, and I did a post on how I broke my phone clip and how I fixed it. I had taken my phone clip off my belt, took a photo, and set it down on the seat next to me. I plugged in my phone to download the photo, and when I had finished the post, my jacket was on the floor and my phone clip was gone. I looked all around and under the seats to see if it had fallen off and gotten kicked somewhere, but it wasn't there. The guy two seats over had stolen my phone clip.

There's no fix for "stolen." Now I have to go looking for another phone clip that will fit on my Otter Box or order one online. Dang it.

my life is measured by what I've broken

Maybe I'm accident-prone. Maybe it's because of advancing age. Or maybe it's just because I'm very active.That last excuse works for me. Whatever it is, I seem to break things. A lot.

Recently, I dropped a mug on a laptop and killed the hard drive. Saturday I got my cell phone holster caught in the door catch as I was going in the back door and broke the clip right off. Fortunately, the Otter Box for my iPhone remained intact. (I have an Otter Box because of my history of dropping my cell phone on the floor. I also got the replacement insurance when I bought the phone.)

It's a good thing I'm fairly handy. It's nice to have alternative solutions when plastic things break. Some heavy duty black webbing and sew-on Velcro fixed the problem, and my phone "clip" is even sturdier than the plastic one. It won't break and it works better on my belt. It's completely hidden on the underside of my Otter Box, so no one will ever see that it's Velcro instead of a "professional" phone clip.

It doesn't, however, answer the question, "what am I going to break next?"

 

 

how to kill a laptop

We had an older laptop in the kitchen. Now it's a dead laptop. One of our heavy Deneen Pottery mugs fell on it.

I was working on something on the ceiling, and my elbow whacked one of the mugs on a high shelf and sent it crashing to the floor. I didn't realize the laptop on the counter had been mortally injured until after I cleaned up the pieces of the tea lid* on the floor. The laptop started making clicking noises like it was trying to start up a CD in the drive, except there wasn't one in there. The screen flickered and went blank. I turned off the laptop, hoping that perhaps it was just slightly confused and needed a rest and a gentle re-boot. No deal--a fatal blow to the hard drive.

*As a testament to the durability of Deneen's mugs, the mug itself miraculously did not break, and the tea lid that was on top of it only broke into two pieces!

 

No, I am NOT eligible for your senior discount!

Recently I went to the car wash and noticed their "senior discount" sign for those 60 and older while I was waiting in line at the cashier.

What's wrong with this receipt?

Yup. Senior discount. And I didn't even ask for it.

Gah!

non-drowsy allergy medication... oops.

Allergies in Albuquerque are pretty tough this year.  We had a severe freeze that delayed the juniper from spreading its pollen in early February.  When it finally warmed up to start doing that, it joined everything else that was right on schedule.  Double dose.

Did you know that periodically you have to change allergy medication?  Your body gets used to it and it just stops working. About the time I figured that out, I started seeing TV commercials for Allegra. "I should try that one," I thought. "Allerclear and Claritin don't work for me any more."

The Allegra works great, especially the Allegra-D that contains decongestant.  I can be almost normal again, except for not sleeping for several nights in a row, after which we realized we had picked up the non-drowsy stuff.  Oops is right.

On one hand, one night I got up and finished painting some shelves I had been working on and then watched two movies on TCM. The next night I got a significant amount of paperwork done and off my desk.

On the other hand, I feel like one of those shaking chihuahuas that someone gave some beer to at a frat party, and it jumps out of its skin if someone says, "boo!"

spring with a vengeance

Remember that terrible cold spell we had back in early February? It got down to 10 degrees below zero here for several days, which is really unusual for us. We didn't suffer any frozen pipes or damage, but it did delay spring for a while. Our crocuses and hyacinths were already starting to bloom but then they got frozen and didn't come back until the end of February.

I was lulled into a false sense of security. The allergies weren't so bad when they normally should have been horrible--until this last week. This is the worst pollen year in the past 10 years because of a dry winter and a warm spring (once the freeze was over).

On the other hand, everything is looking good now. All the trees and vines are starting to leaf out, daffodils are nearly done and tulips will be out soon, and our local roadrunner was checking out the courtyard this morning.

pedestrian crosswalks--unclear on the concept

Today I was downtown waiting at the light by the main library for the walk signal. A young man was crossing the street the other way and was in the middle of the street when a car came whizzing down the street, turned left, nearly hit the guy in the crosswalk, and then proceeded to lay on the horn.

I found myself incensed and wondered for quite a while what things are coming to, that some people are so arrogant and self-centered that they're the only ones who matter. The young man was in the crosswalk and not only had the green light but still had 10 seconds left on the pedestrian crossing light. How much more legal could he get?  

I'm irate on his behalf. If that had been me, I'd be REALLY ticked.

when your mojo becomes no-go

Supposedly, bad luck comes in threes.  I wish.

It began a few weeks back when a simple plumbing back-up became an emergency call to Roto-Rooter that became a collapsed sewer line, then it became another collapse in a different location. It continued on Tuesday when a guest told me she had managed to drop a ceramic soap dish and break it. That one wasn't a big deal at all--easily replaced. But when I got in the car to drive to Santa Fe for an overnight getaway and the car sounded funny and ran funny and then the check engine light started flashing, that one was much more of a big deal. Fortunately, I got off at the very next exit only a couple of miles from home, parked the car, transferred all the stuff to the truck and drove the truck to Santa Fe.

Results:  I need to buy a new soap dish--no problem.  The car issue turned out to be a bad ignition coil and cost us $365. The sewer issue continues--Roto-Rooter returns tomorrow to start digging up the yard to remove the collapsed sections and maybe they can finally get the camera all the way through the line to see exactly how extensive the damage is. The cost estimate they gave was reasonable, I'm sure, but it's never good news.

Not to mention I didn't win Powerball.  Again.