I was in Meijer (regional grocery chain) the other day and noted that their garden merchandise had been replaced with Christmas decorations and wrapping supplies.  And, I  suspect that if it weren’t for Halloween, Santa and his reindeer would be taking over the store.  But, not to worry.  In another week and a half, the goblins will be replaced with elves.

The other day when I was shopping at Meijer (regional grocery chain) I spotted a high performance broom in the housewares isle.  Unlike the traditional straw brooms, this one had a metal handle with a bend in the center.

At first, I thought that it was defective but when I noticed that they were all that way.  So, I concluded that it must be a design feature but why?  Was it to be ergonomically correct?  Was it to improve performance?  I decided to buy one to find out.

So far, I haven’t noticed any difference.

I love homemade tacos.  But, preparing all of the ingredients is so time consuming.  And while I can buy cheese already shredded, I still have to chop lettuce.

Well, last night I saw a trick on TV.  Instead of chopping the lettuce, put a whole lettuce leaf in the taco shell before you add any other ingredients.  Then, put the other ingredients on top of the lettuce leaf.  Not only does this eliminate the need to chop lettuce, it also protects the shell from getting soggy.

Nice idea.  I like it.

I have been eating bananas for over 50 years.  But just last week, I found out that I have been doing it all wrong.

All these years, I have been peeling the banana from the stem end.  But now, I have learned that I should be peeling them from the flower end.  So, I gave it a try.

To my amazement, it was  much easier to peel the banana from the flower end rather than the stem end.  But, I did notice that sticking my finger into the flower end left black goo all over the end of my finger.  And, if I did not wash my finger immediately after peeling the banana, I ended up with black goo all over me.

So, yes, it is easier to peel the banana from the flower end rather than the stem end, but given the mess that it makes, I will stick with the stem.

The other day when I was grocery shopping at Meijer (regional grocery chain) I was repulsed by the smell of body odor wafting in the isle.  Somebody smells bad, I thought.  Then, a sudden wave of horror swept over me.  “What if it is me!!!”  But, a quick check of the pits reassured me that I was fine.  So then, who was it?

As I moved down the isle, the odor seemed to lessen.  And, I was fine until I entered the next isle.  There, the odor once again returned.  But, this time, there were only two of us in the isle.  And since I had already knew that I was “clean”, I concluded that it must be the other person.

From then on, every time that I met the other person,  I also met the odor.  A part of me wanted to point out the sale on deodorants.  But, the other part of me told me to keep my mouth shut.  And so I did.  After all, that is what friends and family are for.

The other day when I was sitting at the drive through at my local Micky D’s, I started crying.  I was madly in love with my wife and miss her so very much.  And by the time I got to the food window, I was a complete mess.  Not wishing to get involved in any discussion with the staff at Micky D’s, I grabbed my food and drove off.

Now, whenever I have these out breaks, I have to ask myself if I am grieving or just having a “pity party”.  If I am grieving, then that is normal but if I am just having a pity party, then it needs to stop.

I can’t go through life feeling sorry for myself.  So, I remind myself that she is dead and that there is nothing that I can do to change that fact.  Get over it and get on with living.

So, the question remains:  Grieving or pity party?

Twice this week, I have had an unsettling dream.  What made the dreams so unsettling was the fact that they were about an old girl friend that I haven’t seen or even talked to in over 40 years.  And, to my knowledge, I have never dreamed about her since she broke my heart.   So, it was bad enough that I even dreamed about her but to do so twice in one week left me rather troubled.  I am concerned.

Since I decided that I needed to shave my neck, I needed two things; a shaver and a large mirror.  The shaver because I didn’t have one and the mirror because I don’t have eyes in the back of my head.

But, both items were purchased at Meijer (regional grocery chain), so I was set to shave.

Now, since I was going to shave my own neck, I sat on the bathroom counter with the mirror in one hand and the shaver in the other.  Between backward mirrors, forward mirrors and bifocals, it was a real challenge.  Finally, I just did it by feel and put the mirrors away.

It worked just fine.  I could tell where to put the shaver just by my feel.  The gobbles of ugly neck hair fell into the sink and I emerged clean and shaven.

When I first started growing my ponytail 10 years ago, I had hair of various lengths so it was hard to pull it back into a ponytail.  But, I knew that one day, it would all be long enough and would pull back neatly into a ponytail.  And so, I patiently waited for all of the short hairs to grow out.

But, year after year, I could never get all of the short hairs on my neck to grow out long enough.  And so, I would just plaster them down with hair spray.

But, I finally came to the conclusion that some of that hair will never grown long enough to pull back into a ponytail.  In short, it is neck hair.  And, since it is frizzy and unsightly, the best that I can do is to shave it off.  And, so I did.

Since I concluded that the hair on the back of my neck would never be long enough to pull back into my pony tail, I would need to trim it back from time to time.  So, I decided to but a trimmer to do that job for me.

Buying a mirror to use to shave the back of my neck was pretty straight forward.  But, buying a shaver was a bit more complicated.  Shavers from the same manufacturer came in several shapes and sizes.  And, of course, the prices ranged accordingly.

The first shavers that I looked at were $50.  They went down hill from there with various prices and attachments.  I finally settled on a $20 unit with various attachments including a nasal trimmer.  It seemed to do the job that I needed it to do.  I doubt that I will ever use the nasal trimmer.