Fashionable Gestures

Oh my! Yesterday I saw a car without an "awareness ribbon" on it!

I recall the old pop song that sang of tying a yellow ribbon on the old oak tree to let someone know they were welcome home. A while ago this romantic ideal was extended to car stickers as a show of support for troops abroad. But now it seems that there are special ribbons for just about every cause. A veritable color-coded ribbon of the month club. Oh, and fashionable arm bands, lapel pins...

Now, I don't mean to belittle the causes; support our troops, support our nation, HIV, stop child abuse, Alzheimer's, breast cancer, etc, etc, etc... But it has reached the point of being just another fashionable gesture.

There is a SUV around the neighborhood that has 4 ribbons lined up across the back. Yep. The message is lost in the medium. Time to put the ribbons away with the old Save the Seal bumper stickers and Baby On Board window hangers. Don't lose sight of the cause, let's get back to what's important.

I'm Being Downsized

And I say it with a laugh! During a recent trip to a Mervyn's clothing store I pulled a couple of shirts off the rack in my normal size and found they were too big. What? Am I shrinking? Nope, apparently the shirts grew. The size they used to call Large is now called Medium. At least for those brands. I guess I'm just not keeping up with the trend. If this keeps up I'll have to go back to shopping in the boys section.

Happy Birthday

My youngest daughter turned 8. It's mind boggling. Each birthday brings a new wave of remembrances.

This year we let the birthday girl choose where she wanted to go for lunch and dinner. For lunch she chose Burger King. Now we've coached her well in the junk food messages and she will tell you that the food isn't that good for you. But given her pick, a burger, apple sauce and milkshake it was. For dinner she chose Taco Maker, another local fast food burger/taco crossover place. But they were closed for unknown reasons. Second choice was McDonalds. But this got groans (and thumbs down) from my wife and I. We finally talked her into a local place that we like that has a children's grilled cheese sandwich plate that she likes. By "talked her into" I mean that's where the car ended up (I was driving) and she relented...

I know, we should count our blessings that we made her happy and got off fairly cheap. In the end, she had a happy day.