Counting Blessings

It would be so easy to spend my time here ranting. There is a lot to rant about but that is to for today's post. Sometimes life seems a bit much and yet.. what are the odds that a person would be born in the first place? The beauty of a sunset or a sunrise, the soft fluff of kitten's purr along with a purr as loud as an airplane, these are blessings. The soft brown gaze of a playful puppy, the laughter of a friend. We so often take blessings for granted. But we do need to stop and count our blessings. Smelling roses and enjoying their radiant colors. Rainbows after rain, the fresh smell after the storm when the world seems new. The sighting of wildlife in a mountain forest, the roar of surf and the feeling one gets of restlessness and a wild peace, on the shoreline of an ocean. The smile of your aged parent. The thanksgiving blessing of a brother, eating till we take our fill. Wide eyes bright with wonder on Christmas morning. Greetings of strangers when your eyes meet in public and they say "Have a nice day" and you reply "The same to you.". Light those candles in the darkness of despair, light them with the blessings you can find in memory or in the reality of the now. 

I Want My Grandma Shoes

As I became older my legs decided that rather than dancing around like a graceful faery at twilight, thy would adopt a third leg known as a cane. So I am not quite so spry as I was in my 20s. And yet, in my late teens and 20s there was something I would have been able to get my grubby young hands on that I do not have access to today: grandma shoes. My girlfriend Ann and I had "granny shoes" ( as we called them then ) to go dancing it. They were wonderful! These were black leather or kidskin oxfords with cuban heels that were usually 1 1/2 to 2 inches, maybe 2 1/2 inches on the outside. They had stitching on the sides, often of flowers. They were usually black. They had wonderful arch support. When the heels would wear down you could take them to a shoe repair and voila they were good again. These were the sort of shoes that young adults could wear out dancing all night and then walk 10 miles in ( and probably 10 miles in the snow, providing one wore some plastic galoshes over them ). These lovely shoes were the usual dress or going to market shoes of little old ladies such as my grandma Lalia. 

So WHERE are my grandma shoes now that I am grandma age and can use them? In the last few months I have seen "grandma shoes" in the fashion magazines. Sort of. They are lace up black oxfords but there is one major problem with these shoes. THEY HAVE SIX INCH HEELS!!!!!!!! I am sorry but those are not grandma shoes. They are break your body shoes. The young women growing up right now who wear these shoes with such high heels have no clue as to the problems they will have as they age. But then the young are invincible, aren't they? I know I certainly thought so when I was younger. 

I want my grandma shoes. I want the same sort of wonderful shoes that my grandma wore when she was a little old lady. I do not want a pair of pseudo-grandma shoes. I want the real thing. I want a well made pair of black oxfords with cuban heels that are 2 inches and under. I want good arch support. Athletic shoes are lovely but they are dressy shoes that are all occasion like grandma shoes were. So could some manufacturer get a clue? I discussed this with other women my age and yes, they also remember their grandmothers wearing "grandma shoes." There would be a huge market for these shoes. Our aging feet, our tired legs, would thank you. You could make a bundle of money off of baby boomer women! There are millions of us! And we do not want 6 inch heels. We do not want 4 inch heels. We want lower heels because then we can walk and dance and skip down a street for joy because we have stylish shoes that make our feet feel good and that make us feel good because we would look great. So give me my grandma shoes. And if you can, could you make them in scarlet red?

Shoddy and Restock {RANT}

Back in the good old days ( horse and buggy days and all that ) things to buy at stores were MADE IN AMERICA. These items were usually made in union shops and there would be a union tag on them. Nowadays finding a Made In USA label is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Almost everything is made in China or somewhere else. Even made in USA can be misleading. The union labels are gone and if it is "Made In USA" it is usually made by illegals under sweatshop conditions. I plan to rant more on this at another time. But the fact is that a lot of poorly made items from clothing to electronic goods, are shipped here for this nation of consumers ( aka chump, sucker, the mark ). Shoddy merchandise. 

Are you sick of it yet, American consumer? I sure as heck am! Which brings me to restocking fees... The merchandiser has found yet another way to sock it to the consumer.  Bad enough we have gone from "lifetime guarantee" to big ticket items that only are have a 30 to 90 day up to a year warranty on the outside, bad enough the stores try and sell us worthless warranties on top of the purchase price of whatever item we purchase. The stores ( both on and offline ) now want us to pay a "restocking fee."Anywhere from 10 to 15% for returning something that doesn't work right. The excuse is people will buy items and then return them, having only wanted to use them for a short while. This is an insult to the consumer and says we are all con artists out to rip off the local store. How about the stores and the big manufacturers who have been ripping off the consumer with shoving shoddy merchandise down our throats for decades now? Whether I am a yuppie ( which I certainly am not ) or some working class joe or jane who saved up for a long time to buy some big ticket item, do not insult me as a customer if I bring it back because it didn't work right and you tell me that you need to deduct a restocking fee from the total. I do not care if you tell me that you will give me a gift certificate for your store ( if the item I bought is no longer available ) or if you want to give me a duplicate of what I just purchased. Treatment like this is going to mean you have lost a customer. And in these uncertain economic times do you really want to do that? 

I have also heard that the stores are planning to charge restocking fees for returned gifts after Christmas. BAH HUMBUG! Stores need to start treating their customers with some respect. Or they will find their little empires crumbling into the sand. And how about putting America back to work at decent wages with good health care that does not cost an arm and a leg, decent pensions. Put America back to work so that when we, the consumer, go in to buy something, there is less of a chance that we will need to return it because it was shoddy in the first place. 

They should warn us {RANT}

Menopause is not fun. This is pretty much common knowledge. HOWEVER. What they do NOT tell you is that things can be worse AFTER rather than before you go through menopause. So let me explain all of this to you. Menopause is the term for when a woman no longer has the "curse."We stop having our monthly periods. YIPPIE!  Ahhh... sort of. The time before we stop our periods, for around 5 years, on average, when we have wacky cycles, a period every 3 weeks or none for 3 months, is known as peri menopause. Menopause is when one has not had a period for a year. The time after that is known as post menopause. Most of what one reads tells how hellish it is during peri menopause. And then life is the life of Riley. My peri menopause was relatively painless. but the post menopause has been horrible. During peri I had heat flushes ( these are different from hot flashes as they are a feeling of being slightly flushed with a warm feeling and might last all of 15 seconds or so ). I had mood swings, mostly mild though a few episodes were 10 minutes of bitchiness, 10 minutes of depression, things like that. And then I went through menopause and thought cool, no more periods, no more of menopause. It is OVER. Yeehaw! Little did I know... About 6 months ago or so things happened. Depression, anxiety, rage and flat out being antsy and restless. Pacing the floor sort of antsy. GRRRRRRRRR. NO FUN. And then there are the hot flashes...EEK. I turn 60 soon and thought all of this nonsense was OVER. It was done, kaput. Except it wasn't. So here I am with the mood swings from hell, with hot flashes, brain fogs... and when I checked it out on line, guess what? It turned out to be NORMAL! Why then, when they talk about menopause do they always mention menopause as if the years prior to it are the worst of it? Who knows? Maybe it is because for most women it is the worst. But we should be warned that menopause is not only peri. It is also post. And for some of us it it is worse after than before. And we need to know that when we think all of this nonsense is over it might only be beginning. How bad is it? How about having PMS plus hot flashes all month long? I just want to be normal again...I just want to be normal again. I just want to be normal again.... 

Snooty ( and often depressed, ornery and flat out cantankerous ) Aunt Cynthia

my new little blog

11-0-08

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I finally get myself a loverly little blog. Yippie....

My wonderful brother Hal has been so very helpful in helping the tech dummy get set up 

here. As I was typing Hal came on for my first video chat. Mom was over at his house and he had her on as well. What fun! Shades of video phones and the Jetsons!    Now about this little blog of mine... about that so cute ( I am hahahaha ) so hot (hotter than can be and fabulously cool besides... ) and so old ( I turn 60 in December so I am getting to the old part ).My name is Cynthia and I am an aunt and I am snooty upon the occasion. So I shall be known here as Snooty Aunt Cynthia or SAC. But I am not a sad sac (k)  but rather I m a glad SAC ( usually ). That is a half full glass of lemonade. And the glad is like the Pollyanna Glad Game. I do have rants and raves and reviews. The rants might be about anything under the sun but then again the raves could also be about anything either.

Ok, that is enough for this virgin voyage. Ta ta 4 now duckies, 

Snooty Aunt Cynthia