"Man shopping" for clothes

Over the past several "semi-retired" years my wardrobe, modest in the best of times, has taken a nose dive.  I can count only three decent sports shirts that I can wear out in the evening or to a casual business meeting.  As I have another meeting tomorrow and they've already seen me as "Larry, Curly, and Moe", I figured it was time to go do a little shopping.

 Whatdayamean "Am I going out looking like this?"

Like many men, I'm not a good shopper.  That's why I rarely do it.  That's also why I usually look like a holocaust survivor, except for the part about being brutally starved.  (Trust me, I DON'T look starved.)  My default version of clothes shopping consists of going to the LL Bean website and buying some new shorts and t-shirts, then waiting for the UPS man to arrive.  Easy peasy.

But today I felt brave and ventured out to the big mall just a couple of blocks away.  I went in to Dillard's first, found the men's department in the back corner, and then found several shirts that looked nice.  The lady whose first language sounded like it was Russian told me they were now 40% off.  Sweet!

I whipped out my wallet and she said, "I'll need your Dillard's card, please."

I said, "I'll just pay with my debit card, thank you."

"Oh no sir (or maybe it was "Comrade"), the sale price is only for Dillard's Club members.  I'll be happy to open you a membership.  ("Membership" must now be the code word for credit card.)  Nope, no more "memberships" for me.

Bye-Bye.

At the other end of the mall was Macy's.  Same drill, found the men's department and a couple of nice shirts....they were Tommy Bahama....but they were waaaaay over $100 each.

Bye-Bye. 

Next it was on to Nordstrom's.  I found their men's department in the corner of the basement (how come women get 95% of the store?) and a couple of acceptable shirts.

The tag said the fabric was "modal".  So I said to myself, "Self, WTF is modal?  And more importantly, does it need to be ironed?"  I looked it up on the World Wide Web (thank you iPhone) and it said modal "pills" and likely needs ironing.

Bye-Bye.

I decided my last stop before I gave up entirely would be REI.  Fortunately they had a couple of Colombia shirts that I liked, never mind that they looked like I was going fishing, so I bought 'em.

Now I'm just hoping the "fisherman look" is better than the "holocaust survivor look".  I'm thinking it's a toss-up.  Meh.  ;)

S

Score!

Yesterday while K and I were out working off our Saturday "to do" list I realized we were just a block from REI and my car, as it's wont to do, went on auto-pilot straight into their parking lot.  Fortunately for me as I discovered they were having a store-wide "garage sale".  Some of it was returned items on sale for cents on the dollar, but they also had tons of new stuff marked down 50%, too.

I found this $180 Primaloft-insulated mid-weight REI jacket for $83.  Now I just have to fight Luke for it.  (He looks "ready to rumble."  Grrrrr!)

I don't understand clothes merchandising.  Here it is barely a week into winter, there is still snow on the ground from last Tuesday's storm, and already stores are clearing out their winter stuff and making room for....what....summer shorts and t-shirts?  It seems like they start earlier and earlier every year trying to sell us the upcoming season's styles.  I'm thinking someday they'll actually get ahead of themselves a full 12 months and put next winter's stuff on sale at the start of this winter.

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My banana pudding is in demand again....by ME!  I took a huge bowl of BP I made to the in-laws for (part of) our Christmas dinner dessert, and as we left K said, "Y'all just keep the rest and enjoy it."  DOH!  I got one modest-size bowl for all my effort.

This afternoon we're going to have Christmas with two of my daughters who live in the area and grandkids Parker and Blakely, plus grand-daughter Reese still "in the oven".  I made another banana pudding to share with the family, with the understanding I'm bringing back at least some of what's left over.  I mean, one serving is just a teaser!

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'Tis the best of times....it's college football bowl season....and the worst of times....after January 7th I won't have any more NCAA football for eight months.  Oh, the horror!

So far we've only had some of the minor bowl games like the Boudreaux's Butt Paste* Bowl (or something like that) where my Texas Tech Red Raiders lucked out and beat Minnesota as the clock ran out.   Hey, it's still a "W"....I'll take it.

Now I'm gonna go check the newspaper to see which NFL players added to their police rap sheets over the weekend.

Y'all have a nice Sunday.

S

*Yes, there really is such a product.  (I don't make this stuff up, folks.  Well, not most of it.)

Customer Service....RIP

"Our Director of Customer Service is Helen Wait.  If you want customer service, go to Helen Wait."

Is anyone reading this old enough to remember newspaper boys?

They were usually elementary or jr. high age kids who would make their delivery rounds by bicycle early in the morning before school started.  Part of their job was to deliver the paper TO YOUR PORCH.  Anything less would usually result in a call to the newspaper, who would dispatch the kid back out to knock on your door and hand you your paper, along with an apology.

Later, for whatever reason, the rules were changed.  I guess the kids' work ethic was beginning to slip, so the newspapers gave the kids plastic baggies and told them to bag the papers and just try to hit the front yard.  

Later still, I suppose they couldn't get enough kids to do the job so they recruited adults who had cars to cover larger areas of town.  They would drive down the street at 40 mph and just sling papers out the window.  If it landed anywhere at all on the property it was considered a successful delivery.

IMO today we've hit absolute bottom.  One of the (print) papers I like to read is the Sunday NY Times.  It's printed locally by the Dallas Morning News and distributed by their crack crew of delivery specialists crack heads.  At least every other week....sometimes several weeks in a row....we have to call the paper and remind them who we are, where we live, that we are one of their "valued" customers, and that we want our paper!

I'm surprised they don't just tell us to come on by and pick one up, or better yet, just go on-line and read it there (which is what I do M-Sat) and quit callin' and wakin' em up.  "Paying customers are just so darn demanding these days...sheesh!"

Listen up Amazon, REI, LL Bean, and those handful of others who still have excellent customer service:  Don't let your people mingle with the general public.  Filter the air in your buildings and boil all water before use.  Offer all available immunizations against this insipid "give-a-shit" disease that is devouring customer service across our land.  Your reputation, your very existence even, depends on it!

S

Pretense

In the mail yesterday I received my yearly REI Co-op dividend, so I went and bought a new pair of super-light casual summer shoes.

I bought the ones I did for two reasons:  They're comfortable, and they're Patagonia brand.


Patagonia is a cool company, the kind of company I want to reward with my business. As a young man Yvon Chouinard lived to surf and rock climb.  He would work just long enough to make a few bucks, then he and some friends would take off on some pretty grand poor-man's expeditions, such as a month-long drive in a clapped-put old van to climb in the Patagonia region of Argentina and Chile.  He eventually realized he could make better climbing pitons than he could buy, so he bought some blacksmith's equipment and did just that.  Other climbers saw how good his stuff was and wanted some too.  Later he realized his pitons were damaging the rock faces he so loved, so he stopped making them (giving up 3/4 of his business) and instead perfected hexagonal chocks that would do no harm to the environment.  From there his business grew and grew to become the worldwide company it is today.


Here's the cool part:  I've seen Yvon on several TV outdoor documentaries and he seems to be totally without pretense.  He looks like the kind of guy who would sit next to you on a lunch counter stool and you'd have no idea he was anyone "special".  He could have sold his company years ago and made (even more) mega-millions of $$$, but decided he wanted to keep his company private and on the high ground, doing good for his employees (they say it's a GREAT place to work) and the environment by giving back for all he's been given.  I'm not saying this because I'm a big tree-hugger (I'm not really), but because I respect a man for doing what he believes in and not prostituting himself for a buck.  He's now in his 70's and still doing outdoor things many people half his age can't.


Like most everybody I've often daydreamed about winning the lottery.  Even with all that money I don't think I'd change too much.  I'd still wear my jeans or shorts and t-shirts, live in a modest apartment/home, etc. I would probably travel more, but that's all I can think of I'd like to do that I can't do now.  Heck, I even like my 5-year old car.


I don't like pretense.  If you have to tell me how cool you are, you're not that cool.  I doubt Yvon gives a shit what anyone thinks of him.  My kinda guy!


S

I'm not sure I fully understand the difference between liberal and conservative stances on some issues.  In particular, consumer protection issues.  How is trying to force banks (and lenders in general) to say clearly, right up front and in plain English, what their terms are and what they're going to charge, anything but a good idea?  How is that partisan?  Unless you're a banker or lender intent on snookering the public into thinking they're getting a good deal when in fact you're charging them 28% interest or something like that, how could you not be in favor of such laws?  Where's the down side, unless you're a banker?  


The one thing I've learned from the financial crisis of '08 is that big business can't be trusted to do what's "right".  It's become so bad that as far as I'm concerned the burden of proof is on them to show me they're playing nice.  And to be fair there are a lot who do pass my smell test by honoring their warranties without resorting to loopholes and vague language that to a layman says one thing but legally means another, producing a clearly superior product, etc.   (Examples?....Amazon, REI, LL Bean, Zappos, to name a few.)  I consult Consumer Report regularly, and although I've never tried it, I've heard good things about Angie's List.  I just think it's a shame things have come to this.  Caveat Emptor...."buyer beware"....has never been more true.


What prompted this post was an article I read that told of one insurance company that was suing a bank for misrepresenting a financial instrument the insurance company was covering against default.  Sure enough things fell apart, the insurance company refused to pay up, and both are pointing fingers at each other saying the other side is a crook.  Hahaha....talk about the pot calling the kettle black!  I say a pox on them all.

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On a more pleasant note, tonight it's my turn to pick our date night restaurant, and I'm choosing Anamia's.  We've only been there once before, but it left a grand impression on me.  I can taste it now....yum!  If I can remember to take pictures of our meal before I dive into it I will. 

Happy Friday!

S 

A good weekend....

I got up earlier than I wanted on Saturday to take the dog out and found to my dismay that yet another charity had yet another 5K run going on, and it was being staged in MY neighborhood.  Again.  I'm all for charities making a buck, but why must I walk out my door what seems like every other Saturday to find 10,000 people milling around, PA systems blaring, and golf carts whizzing by?  Why can't they start one from some other neighborhood once in a while?  Then they had the major roads closed for the run all morning, meaning a normal 2-mile trip took me on a 4-mile runaround.  I managed to not run any of 'em over....K calls it "peaceful co-existence".  

I dumped off a car load of old records....literally, my car had 15 boxes of files in it....at the shredders later Saturday morning, and after that I had a day free of chores.  I went to REI and visited my kayak, which they are kindly holding for me until I can scrape a few more dollars together and find a place to keep it.

The highlight of my weekend was watching my alma mater Texas Tech play #1 ranked Oklahoma Saturday night on TV.  After a 2-hour delay because of a huge storm in the area (Norman, OK) Tech whipped up on them convincingly, winning 41-38.  It really wasn't as close as the final score indicates.  How was that possible?  Tech always has a great offense, but defense is usually just an abstract theory to them. Saturday they must have slipped in some ringers as our defense pretty much kept OK* in check.  They scored 2 late touchdowns to make it semi-interesting, but by then the stands were half empty.  *happy dance*  

So that was my 1-day weekend (had to work Sunday).  Didn't kill any runners, goofed off, watched Texas Tech kick ass.  Told you it was a good weekend.  ;)

S


*Why do Oklahoma's license plates say "Oklahoma is OK"?  Because they can't spell "mediocre".  (Sorry, that was mean.  Funny, but mean. ;)