Who is that old lady in the mirror?

Funny thing about getting older - you don't actually feel older, you just look older. Most of the time I still feel like I'm about 13 - it's so unfair to have the inadequate, clueless, insecure personality of a 13 year old and the wrinkles, sags and gray hair of an old person.

Sometimes I see someone and my mind automatically categorizes the person as "old" - a nanosecond later I realize, oh, that person is probably my age.

A few months ago my husband was describing a woman he had met recently, "she's a little old retired lady." So an image came into my head - remember the lady who owned Tweetie Bird in the cartoons? Yeah, that was the picture in my head, a little old retired lady. Then my husband added, "she's probably in her fifties." I stared at him. "Pat," I said, " Little old retired lady?? WE are in our fifties." Later I met the woman in question: a very attractive woman about my age. Not little or old (although her hair is silver, it was cut in a modern style and was pretty sharp looking).And if she was retired, then she's lucky. I wish I could retire too! Then I could be a little (not), old (maybe), retired lady too. Wahoo!

Guthrie

My grandson, Guthrie will be one year old next week, March 19. It has been a momentous year in many ways, and Guthrie has been the shining, redeeming star. A few days after his birth I had the privilege of staying with my daughter and her family in Brooklyn. Here is a diary entry from that trip:

March 28

I am in Brooklyn! This is what I think from my trip here. All airports look alike (except maybe Denver with it's weird subway systerm). It's better to not check your luggage, just carry on what you can. Buy your lotions and shampoos at your destination. Airport food is not only expensive, it's not very good, bring your own food. People who don't want to look out the windows of the plane should give up their seats to those of us on the aisle craning our necks to see something. The Statue of Liberty looks teensy, like a chess pawn, from the air. Manhattan is built up all the way to edges of the island. I also saw the Chrysler building and the Empire State building, very cool. The taxi was very clean, the driver frustrated at rush hour traffic, but was very polite to me.

March 29

Grant and Sarah's apartment is so cute. A little galley kitchen just like I've seen in the Conran kitchen books. Pressed tin ceilings and old fashioned radiators. The brownstone building is beautiful with enormous Italian doors with etched glass. Sarah & I figured out how to wrap little wee Guthrie and we took a walk. She took me to a place called the Tea Lounge which is a coffee house much like the one in the Friends TV series, with big old couches and overstuffed chairs. There were palm frond ceiling fans each with a fantastic weird light, some were stained glass Moravian stars. There were small tables that looked like African drums where people were sitting and working with their laptops. In one corner was a whole stroller posse of moms and kidlets.

Speaking of kidlets, on to the most important part of this trip - wee baby Guthrie, who is perfect in every respect. He is SO cute. He does all the adorable little newborn baby things - the little snorts and squeals and grunts and lamb bleats. He squishes up his face and arms and legs and butt in every direction. He is pink and sweet and has the intent little baby blue eyes that just gaze and gaze. He likes to look at his black and white toddler board books. Sarah and Grant seem much in love with him. They spend quite a lot of time lying on the bed with the babe between them and staring at him, saying things like, "He's still cute."

Please unplug your plastic toaster, or, Will your cheap toast kill you?

A woman thanked my husband recently - she had heard about our fire and Patrick told her it was probably caused by the toaster, he told her to unplug her toaster when it wasn't in use. So last week she ran into him and said, "Thank you!" She had adopted the habits of unplugging her toaster when not in use, and standing nearby and watching it when she was toasting bread. Her toaster caught on fire! "It wasn't the bread," she said, "it was the plastic, it melted."

Plastic components in a toaster??

"Where'd you get your toaster," Patrick asked her. "Wal-mart," she replied.

Guess where we bought our toaster?

I'd heard about the inferior products sold by Wal-mart. The company insists on low prices, so the manufacturers of even heavily advertised brand name products have to make a separate line of products for Wal-mart, made with cheaper parts.

The systems administrator at the library told us that computers sold by Wal-mart have cheap plastic components that break easily. I know from my own frustrating and aggravating experiences that bicycles bought from Wal-mart are junk.

[Apparently Best Buys also follows this practice. My husband works at a furniture and appliance store and has heard many customer complaints about major brand appliances bought from Best Buys. (The customers bring their complaints to our local store because they sell the same brands.) When Pat and his boss, the owner of the store, look at the appliances - they aren't the same as the models in their store - parts made of plastic, very cheap and flimsy.]

Is cheap toast really worth the cost of having your house burn up? Is it worth the possibility of your pets and children burning to death? Maybe it's time to dredge up the cash to buy one of those sleek, shiny, retro toasters you've been admiring. But wait, check first and make sure it's not plastic. In the meantime, unplug your plastic toaster!