This cartoon is from 20 years ago. I bought one of those warming trays not long ago, and it wasn’t cheap. It would make a nice gift, under the right circumstances. Actually, I wouldn’t mind getting one for Christmas, but sometimes you just have to draw a cartoon, you know? Here’s today’s Old Fogey observation: remember “Shopping Days until Christmas?” Often it would be expressed in a little graphic on the front page of the local newspaper. (Remember newspapers?) Now, what other kind of day is there?
80 responses to “Seasonal Temperatures”
Something to warm an Old Fogeys heart :). One of my favorite Christmas stories:
http://www.newsfromme.com/pov/col245/
Yep, I remember the newspaper “countdown”…and how I couldn’t wait until it read “One More Shopping Day Until Christmas”.
Debbe 😉 So, like George Burns, if you’d known you were going to live so long, you’d have taken better carry of yourself? 🙂
I have another friend who has trouble getting needed medications because of regulations promulgated due to the actions of the irresponsible few…or to use their proper name, “knuckleheads”.
Obviously Arlo is remembering the don’t give wives anything with an electric cord attached adage.
Has that changed over the years? I wonder.
Anything shiny works, in my experience.
Home invaders, Jackie? I have a remedy for that. Sorry your day did not start out well. On my theory that things tend to “even out”, let’s assume it well get better as it goes along. When we have time (ha!), we can compare “Mom” stories. I hadn’t mentioned it, but I had discovered she was skimping on her nutrition (“I wasn’t hungry.” “It was too much trouble to fix myself anything to eat.”), so for the past three weeks, I’ve been preparing her breakfast and dinner and having her lunch delivered. And when I deliver a meal, I sit and make sure she eats it. (At last! Revenge for all those yucky foods she made me eat when I was a kid!)
The good news is, she seems to be getting out of the funk she had fallen into and is actually anxious to get back to the level of self-sufficiency she enjoyed before she was hospitalized. I may even be able to make a daytrip to visit my friends on the Redneck Riviera Saturday, and I have made tentative plans to attend a New Year’s Eve party. (Warning: Drama involved there. Film at eleven.)
Add me to the list of those with autoimmune diseases and rheumatoid disease who have trouble due to people who abuse drugs and prescriptions. And Mike with cancer, can’t get a refill on a pain med without seeing doctor in person and a handwritten script.
Add my mom to those who will not eat properly. When I moved her here she had already forgotten how to cook or even use any appliances and still cannot. I make everything and put in front of her. She has also forgotten what she does and does not eat, so I end up ordering for her in restaurants and reminding her that she eats broccoli.
Her last living sister developed anorexia along with her cancer, so she has a “minimum must eat diet” which she repeats daily. Mom decided to copy that and when I got her she was dehydrated and malnourished. Something Mike’s last aunt died of actually.
So, seniors not eating properly is almost universal, witness skinny little gray haired ladies in assisted living or nursing homes. If you have family member check their diets and ability to cook.
Love, Jackie
Dear folks, if you have a chance and the inclination, please say a little prayer for my husband.
Actually, Denise, I’ll say a great big ol’ prayer for your husband.
Lately, my prayers have all seemed to begin with, “It’s me again, Lord…”.
And a few prayers for our community is appreciated. I grew up in Souderton, PA and still live just 15 minutes away. Google Brad Stone and get the gory details. We have guards surrounding our schools, doors locked and on alert until they catch the guy. Very sad. Holidays are brutal for some…
Bucks county. How sad, I know exactly where you are. I seem to dream and pray for the Village all the time, but that is OK. I accept and am grateful for prayer from all faiths, all nationalities, all races. That is what a Village is for, to care for those we love.
Even if we don’t know them yet, a Village is an extended family.
Let’s pray for Australia and Pakistan as well. Sorrow knows no boundaries.
Love, Jackie
I mentioned the “Shopping Days Until Christmas” and got blank stares from the young Engineers that I work with. This topic came up as we debated stores being opened for Thanksgiving. As the child of two parents who needed to be at work on Holidays and Snow days, I really do not like the trend of stores opening on holidays. Those people should be home with family.
However we still have car dealerships in Detroit that do not open on Saturday’s. For many of us, Saturday’s are the only day for car shopping or repairs.
Denise, special prayers for your husband….
Some are wondering why the hostage taker/killer in Australia was not on a “terrorist watch list”. More to the point to me is the question of why he was not still in jail. News reports from Down Under indicate he was out on bail from an arrest for accessory to murder and 40+ sexual assault charges. Bail? Really?
And when he hears “it’s me again …” I bet he says- “Well come on in and sit, tell me about it. Just talk a while with me….” 🙂
Llee: Love it!
Dearest Ghost, you are a precious, caring son to your mother. Good for you, fixing her food and making sure she eats it! Do you cook at her house, or at yours and take it over?
Debbe, you sure have problems — how you can keep a cheerful attitude is remarkable. Arthritis and cold concrete are bad news for legs and feet. Hope things are better today.
No right answers yet on the color of my Dodge mini-van. I would love to have blue-green as dear Debbe guesses, or baby blue as Jackie suggests; my favorite color is blue. But no; hint hint — it’s a VERY popular color for this model. I see it everywhere, and I actually dislike it; but I’ve gotta put up with it.
Dear Jackie, I’m thinking of you — best of luck if you do have to drive to Tulsa. Also sending good, caring thoughts to Denise and to Nancy.
Charlotte, seems to me that about 90% of the minivans I see are white. My sedan is my favorite color for a vehicle…black. Yes, it’s a bear to keep clean, but a black vehicle has always seemed to me to look very elegant.
I prepare my Mom’s meals in my home, as it’s easier that way, knowing where everything is in my kitchen, and I don’t have to travel too far. Several years ago, my ladies at work were ordering items from a catalog, and for no particular reason I ordered a set of plastic compartmentalized and covered food dishes (I suppose you’d call them “leftover” plates), which I promptly stored away and never used. Now it turns out they are perfect for transporting meals to my Mom. Funny how things like that work out.
Nancy, I just got a news alert on my phone that officers have found a body in the woods with a self-inflicted GSW they believe to be Stone’s.
Eubie Blake, at 100, said, “If I’d known I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself” and I naively thought how neat of him to have thought of that. Then, I think a few years later, Burns. Now my thought is, how old is that line. In ages past, it might have been some geezer at 80.
Prayers and thoughts for all those that make my handicaps look minor, likewise my $$, kid, and grandkid problems. And also for joys to come, incl. a ‘Save the Date’ card in today’s mail for a spring wedding.
Peace, emb
Nuts! “Now my thought is, how old is that line?” I’ve just exposed my most common booboo, failing to end a q. with a ?, or to close a ( or a [ or a ” or ‘. It may take 3-4 rereads to catch those, or fail to. My last column in the paper said fiath instead of faith. I must have clicked ‘add’ instead of ‘change’ on that one once. As the cat said, ‘nobody’s perfect.’
With kids in the home, sometimes it boils down to getting that warming tray as a gift, because it sure cannot happen otherwise. No matter how much you earn, if you have children, there will never be enough money.
It is still sheerest folly, however, to give the wife any sort of appliance unless it was specifically requested, but even then, you better have something “extra” to go with it. And I cannot conceive of being the guy who gives the wife a chainsaw for Christmas. The first thing she will use it on will be HIM!
Years ago when my design crew and I were making over and making attractive floral/gift shops, I was stunned when my sweet midlife female designer said, “That display cabinet is hideous. Let me go get my saw out of the car trunk.” And came back in with a chain saw and proceeded to cut down all the 4 x 4 corner posts and about 2-3 feet off the length. Dexterously, too.
While I carried tools in those days, they tended to be less aggressive, because the construction we did was supposed to be minimal. But I think we ended up adding a power skil saw to the collection after that to trim down and repurpose things. I don’t think the owners ever really figured it out, they’d say “Wow! You all made a lot of room when you moved things!”
Love, Jackie
Took the evening pain meds early today! Actually I am allowed a midday dose if it is bad.
Charlotte – Silver mini-van.
Steve – Even if all the stores closed, people will still travel, run out of a neccessity, or need medical attention. No matter the day or hour, somebody is working. I don’t begrudge it. If I really minded, I wouldn’t hAve taken a job in retail.
Those who need well wishes, I am in elf uniform, I’ll see what magic I can bring you all. 🙂