The Price Wasn't Right

My red glasses

I should have replaced my glasses before leaving for Florida, but by the time I thought of it I was too late to do anything. I squinted to see signs, especially in the sun, and new eyewear was on one of the first items on my post-vacation to-do list.

I'd been coveting red glasses for a year or so, but hadn't intended to order everyday, no-line bifocal, transition lenses and sunglasses too. However, I was an easy sell when I saw not one, but two attractive red pairs. I made the purchase at a America's Best, where the price was right and the St. Paul Midway store staff are courteous, cheerful and professional. I didn't get the "deal" (2 pairs for $69.95) but was fine with my higher end glasses, especially when the resident optometrist and optician performed miracles with my new and always difficult prescription.

Bob almost immediately noticed that his own transition lenses -- one of about ten pairs of glasses in active service -- were irreparably scratched and beyond the warranty period. He tried to blame the scratches on me, the self-appointed eyewear cleaner in the family, but at least one optician suggested that he might have done the damage himself by rubbing debris into the lenses while using "unauthorized" cleaning materials, such as his own shirt.

His eye appointment was yesterday morning at the University of Minnesota, and the staff there recommended Costco ("no membership required") and Walmart for his glasses. I was stunned and a little dismayed, since Bob had already dismissed discount providers, attributing at least some of his problems to "shoddy goods" in the current rotation.

Bob is not really a discount shopper, or any other kind of shopper for that matter, but he actually found a pair at Costco that he liked, but a $120 membership is indeed required so no purchase was made, particularly since glasses aren't warrantied. We moved on to Walmart, where he found a nice pair, but the price tag was quite high so that deal didn't fly either. Meanwhile, I smugly admired my two new pairs of red glasses.

The Magic Hairbrush

Magic hairbrush selfie

On Easter Sunday I interrupted Sonia M. in mid-sentence to comment on her beautiful hair. She looked as though she'd just come from a high-end salon after a pricey blowout and I couldn't help admiring her new look, with just a hint of suppressed jealousy.

"It's my new hairbrush", she said, and with characteristic generosity, she offered to pick one up for me. Sonia delivered my magic hairbrush on Wednesday afternoon and I couldn't wait to try it out. Sure enough, the ceramic center gets hot and does the job of a curling iron, and the soft bristles add shine to the hair. We're using the Olivia Garden Turbo-Vent Combo Petite.

Because the magic brush worked so well on my post-Florida hair -- too long, fly-away and dry -- I decided to proceed with the plan to grow out my layers for the summer. The hair looks quite a bit shorter, but the only  "real" length was cut off the bottom back layer. The other layers and bangs were simply trimmed by a fraction of an inch.

I dry my hair quickly and use the brush mainly for volume and curl control. No more heated rollers or curling iron, and the shine is quite lovely.

Holiday Deck Lights

Deck lights are on again

Off and on in the 10+ years we've enjoyed our deck we've had small clear lights across the top perimeter. Last summer I replaced them all, with used Christmas lights, and wondered how long it would be before I'd have to do the job again. The answer came when we returned from Florida after leaving the deck lights on 24X7 for the month we were gone.

All three strings were out, two of them completely. No amount of jiggling restored the connection so I removed the lights and did the job again, this time in the chilling cold of an April afternoon instead of the bright warmth of a Minnesota summer morning. One set was old and the other two were brand new "out of the box", bought last November with this specific failure in mind. Bob reminded me that I could have replaced the little battery in each set, but I just didn't feel up to it.

The lights aren't LED. I'm usually in favor of anything energy efficient but I got discouraged several years ago when the squirrels destroyed a half-dozen expensive sets of  LED lights that may have looked a little too much like appetizing fruit. However, I feel guilty and think I'll try LED again next time I have to do deck lighting.

The construction workers next door watched me work with some interest, maybe wondering if I'd lost track of the season. With unusual restraint, I refrained from commenting on my achievement and enjoyed the cheerful brightness when the rain fell in the evening.

Good Friday Devotions

In the ten years or so before I retired, I usually landed at Assumption Church in downtown St. Paul for both Holy Thursday and Good Friday. Always a quick service, starting promptly at 12 noon and over in time for me to be back at work by 1:00 p.m. Last year, Bob and I went to Assumption on Good Friday and yesterday we went to Holy Thursday Mass there. However, Bob is not too keen on the 19th-century pews designed for short German pioneers and he wanted to go to our own Nativity Church this afternoon. We arrived in plenty of time to get a good seat - in our case, the last pew of the first section on the west side of the church.

Shortly before the service started, a seemingly self-appointed usher started stuffing people into pews with fewer than eight occupants. He was still signaling to unseated attendees during the reading of the Passion, and we got an extra deuce in our pew, as well as a young couple with a young child and a newborn. That brought our occupancy to eight plus two kids.

I was actually OK with that, until I moved a little close to my right-hand neighbor. He was definitely not

Back to Reality

84F our first full day back in Minnesota - a record for temperatures dating all the way back to 1882. I still felt so tired from our trip that I didn't enjoy it as much as I should have, but at least I was outside for most of the afternoon.

The prairie garden is covered with last year's leaves, and I knew I'd have to deal with the dried flowers sooner or later. I expected a big job but the garden was  planted on rocky ground and the plants were pulled from the soil much more easily than I had anticipated.

We made our first trip to the compost site late Wednesday afternoon, a few hours ahead of a noisy storm that evening. There wasn't much rain but the daffodils and tulips are growing on the east side of the house, while the new bulbs I planted on the other side are nowhere in evidence. I know that they were too shallow and fear they were either eaten by squirrels or just now growing for some reason.

The sun is shining and the air is quite chilly, more like the early April cold we expected when we got home. Traffic in St. Paul quiet, particularly on this Good Friday afternoon. Feels almost as though we never left home.