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I have reached the stage in life where I do not religiously shave my underarms or my legs. I admit to being more conscious of it in the summer when my legs are exposed in all their blotchy, scarred, bruised, and pale glory, than the winter. I really like depilitories for how well they work, but I hate the lingering smell! Back to the razor…
Other things I am much more consistent in shaving, like my socks. And some sweaters. I admit to shaving them more than I do underarms or legs.
Now that I use the “good stuff” more often than not in my knitting projects, I have discovered that they need an occasional touch-up to look and feel their best. Also, when I succumb to the inexpensive cashmere found at Kohls and Tar-jhay, those sweaters also benefit from a regular depilitorizing under the arms. Pilling underarms are *so* uncouth!
The oldest of my handknit socks are 5 years old. Most of them are worn, washed, and air-dried every week. The heavier winter pair (that broke several bamboo needles in the knitting because I was knitting so tightly) is the one requiring the most attendance. They need shaving every third or fourth wash.
The best tool I have used for this was a battery operated fuzz-buster. It was a great Christmas gift that got a lot of use until…well… until it got dropped once too often. Granted, it was taking longer to get the job done because the blades were definitely showing the wear of their 4 years of hard use, but when you fumble-drop it on concrete instead of rug too many times, it will break up into shards that disappear into dark crannies under and in back of the washer and dryer. This will happen during sweater and winter sock season when you really need it the most. Guaranteed.
Ironing is no longer a common activity. Many people do not even own an iron. Jess was surprised her son even knew what a iron *was*! I, on the other hand, have an advanced degree in laundry which includes the related fields of ironing and removing pilling from clothing, furniture, hand-knit toys, and yes, even woollen dryer balls (I bet a lot of you don’t even know what they are, let alone what they are used for!).
No working fuzz-buster was a problem I could not ignore. I knew I could find them online but the wait for delivery would irritate the daylights out of me.
I tried the evil local Wal-Mart. The store greeter did not know what I was asking for. Did I mean the lint rollers? No, I meant the electric lint and pill removers. Huh? She asked a co-worker who also tried to send me to the lint rollers. Asking store personnel was not really expected to provide any useful answer, but I was ever hopeful that they could shorten my search. And I did find one in the aisle with the laundry accessories (not the drug, health and beauty aides the stores aides suggested). There among the clothes pins, hangers, spray wrinkle remover (don’t get me started!), and net washing bags, was a single, battery-operated fuzz buster.
Excuse me while I go shave some socks. It’s finally decided to be winter around here, and I need them!
A whirlwind road trip to Florida between Christmas and New Years Eve reminded me yet again that techno savvy is an option there, not a ubiquitous presence.
Traveling from Massachusetts to New Jersey on a familiar route doesn’t *require* a GPS but it is nice to know how much farther to the next road change/bio break/pit stop. Being familiar with my particular (older) model of GPS (TomTom One) I can quickly zoom in and out, locate gas stations, detours, and note interesting side attractions. The leg from New Jersey to Florida did not use my GPS. My sister has a Garmin Nuvi and not being familiar with it, it drove me crazy! I could function well enough setting the basic ‘navigate to’ and ‘way point’ but the zoom in and out frustrated me as too sluggish and inclining towards creating a new destination. Did I mention the road trip included my sister, her husband, and myself, traveling in his car/their GPS?
The non-stop from NJ to Clearwater, FL area took us 21 hours including pit stops and meals. We traded off driving times in order to keep moving. When the GPS gave confusing or conflicting instructions to the driver(s), I whipped out my Droid2 and checked things via the Navigator app. I love it when technology works!
Once at our mother’s house, however, its usability rating went way down. Mother knows where things are, but not the address, and she wasn’t always sure of the name of the intended destination. (“it’s off Main St. and there is an Olive Garden Restaurant in front of the Municipal Building” and “a lot of neighbors raved about the Chinese restaurant on Missouri Ave. It has a great buffet they say. Let’s eat there.” ) There were more destinations like these which could not easily be put into a GPS, there being multiple Olive Garden Restaurants, Municipal Buildings, and Chinese restaurants on Missouri Ave, The bank personnel were equally at ease with giving directions sans GPS/address info. Asking directions at the local Publix and CVS were similar experiences with employees giving me puzzled looks (“What you need a GPS for?, Just go left down the street to the ACE Hardware store and it is on the corner on the left after that”).
::sigh::
You would think that there would be tons of beaches listed on the “nearby attractions” and “Public Parks” categories in the GPS, but there weren’t. The beaches are so ubiquitous in the Gulf Coast of Florida, that apparently you can strike out in any direction and run into several. Um… not so. My sister and I are determined souls, however, and we managed to locate Indian Rocks Beach (and another beach off the Causeway but the side we could get to was rocky and somewhat littered with people fishing). We went back a second time.
On our return trip we varied our route so as to drive on the Atlantic side of the state going north. The idea was to find an eating place that overlooked the ocean. We never found one where we thought one should be. We did find St. Augustine and spent a lovely bit of time there ($10 for municipal parking for any and all part of the day! Ouch!). Dinner was in a small cafe on the Spanish Alley. Nachos for all, wine for me, beer for the others and live music on the stage right next to us featuring mellow rock acoustical guitar.
Did you know that Florida is nearer to the equator than NJ or MA? It is. That means the sun is out later in the day. Sundown was after 6 PM instead of 4:30 PM. MAH-velous!
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,100 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 18 trips to carry that many people.
KaliDo 